Published: June 25, 2009 10:42 pm      

Championship raid

Lamar’s Bounds wins State Games golf tournament

After grabbing the opening round lead Wednesday at the State Games of Mississippi junior golf competition, Lamar’s Chad Bounds breezed to the gold medal Thursday.

The Ole Miss signee followed up his opening-round 5-under 66 with a 3-under 68 at Northwood Country Club to win the overall competition by 10 strokes and the Division A crown for 16-18-year-olds by 14 shots. Grant Motter of Hattiesburg finished second overall at the Mississippi Junior Golf Association tour event with a 5-over 76. Motter, who won the Division B title for 14-15-year-olds, opened with a 68 on Wednesday before mustering a 76 on Thursday when only Bounds broke par. Last season, the Raiders’ Easton Key won the inaugural State Games golf outing.

Other medalists included Bounds’ Lamar teammate Allen Massingill. After finishing fifth last year in Division A, Massingill fired back-to-back 75s to grab the bronze at 8-over. Hattiesburg’s Jeremy Archer finished second after shooting a 74-74-148.

Daniel Finan, another Raider standout, finished 13th with a 79-83-162, and Lee McDill of Newton shot 86-77-163 to place 14th. Other local finishers include Wills Scarbrough of Collinsville (87-89-176), Garrick Stoliby of Philadelphia (96-84-180), Austin Terry of Meridian (88-95-183), Kyle Barrett of Union (88-97-185), Taylor York of Philadelphia (92-97-189), Justin Hundley of Philadelphia (99-99-198) and Sam Jennings of Meridian (105-97-202).

In Division B, Motter finished seven strokes ahead of Brookhaven’s Jacob Ross, last year’s Division C gold medalist. Locally, Trey Davis of Collinsville shot an 84-79-163 to place fifth, Nathan Kirkland of Meridian fired an 85-85-170, Clay Johnston of Philadelphia finished 95-92-187 and John Tinsley of Philadelphia shot a 93-97-190.

Tucker Jenkins of Guntown won the 12-13-year-old division with a 70-74-144, finishing at 3-over-par to outdistance Austin Rose of Tupelo by 13 strokes in Division C. Meridian’s Hunter Dungan was 18th and Jacob Stephens was 21st.

Ethan Mangum of Jackson and Garrett Gray of Baldwyn each shot 18-hole totals of 92 to win the Division D and Division E titles, respectively. Mangum opened with a 47 to win the 10-11-year-old crown over silver medalist Trent Hundley of Philadelphia. In the group for golfers 9-and-under, Gray shot 49-43 to defeat Miles Garner of Batesville and Dusty Davis of Collinsville.

The overall girls gold medalist was Hope Biggs of Clinton. Biggs defeated silver medalist Miriam Parker of Madison by 21 strokes, firing an 89-90-179.

The Division E girls’ championship went to Olivia Ross of Brookhaven for the second straight year.

— Jamie Wachter