AMORY – The hard work paid off once again for the Ripley boys golf team.
The Tigers won their third straight Class 4A team state golf championship on Tuesday at the River Birch Golf Club. Ripley was led by senior Jake Moffitt, who took home medalist honors for the third straight year after winning a playoff hole.
“These kids, they do put in the work,” Tigers coach Nik Wilcher said. “I know every coach is like, ‘All my kids put in the work,’ but our top two, especially, they are out there every day, grinding. So I mean, they deserve it. I can wholeheartedly say they deserve it.”
The top two included Moffitt and senior Craig Bullock, who finished with a two-day score of 147, not far behind Moffitt’s 143.
After the first day of play, Moffitt trailed Jackson Autry of West Lauderdale in the individual standings by two strokes. The two were put in the same pairing on the second day, and Moffitt was able to tie it up, forcing a playoff on the 10th hole.
Moffitt completed the 10th in four strokes. Autry’s fourth stroke, a putt on the green, came up just short of the hole.
“I’d definitely say I was pretty nervous. You’re always gonna be nervous when that much is on the line,” Moffitt said. “But just knowing that we had (the championship) secured as a team kind of helped me to calm it down and know that, even helping you to know that the bigger picture was out of the way.”
For Wilcher, Ripley having already won the team championship helped simplify the task at hand.
“Jake just knew what he had to do, and then just knew he couldn’t bogey,” Wilcher said. “He at least needed a par, and a par got him the championship.”
Jack Reid was close behind Moffitt and Bullock with a sixth-place finish. Cole Adams finished ninth, Bo Barefield 17th and Parker McAlister 24th. The Tigers finished with a team score of 612.
Amory finished second in the team standings with a 667. New Albany finished fourth, Tishomingo County seventh, Itawamba AHS eighth and Houston 15th.
