By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
One of the South’s premier amateur golf tournaments is scheduled to tee off once again at Hattiesburg Country Club.
The eighth annual Magnolia Amateur is set for this weekend at the historic HCC layout, bringing top college and amateur players from all over the country.
The first round will begin Friday with tee times starting at 7 a.m. and at noon. The second round is scheduled for Saturday, with the final round on Sunday. The field will be cut to the low 60 scores and ties after the first two days of competition.
Several weeks of dry weather have left the HCC course is superb condition, although tournament officials are keeping a close eye on the budding tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The greens are rolling very well,” said Phillip Northington, assistant at the HCC Pro Shop. “We hosted the State Am a couple of weeks ago and we didn’t get one single negative comment. The only concern now is the weather.
“A little rain won’t hurt us unless it’s just flash flood conditions.”
The Magnolia Am was begun in 2012 to provide a mid-summer tournament for the club and has become popular with college players seeking to hone their games before the fall season.
The tournament’s name harks back to the old Magnolia Classic, a PGA Tour event that was held at HCC for 25 years beginning in 1968.
Among the well-known players who won the Classic when it was in Hattiesburg are the late Payne Stewart and Craig Stadler, and other major tournament winners who played in the tournament included Tom Watson, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo and Davis Love III.
Among the 156-man field are players from 81 colleges and 20 states, some from as far away as New York and California.
“My coach at Wisconsin recommended that I play in this event,” said Sebastian Iqbal of San Jose, Cal., who will be a freshman at the University of Wisconsin this fall. “He’s had other guys on the team who’ve played here in years past, and they said they had a good time.
“I decided to come check it out myself. I like it so far. The people have been very friendly.”
Iqbal was set to play a practice round on Wednesday with fellow Californian Brendan Hy of San Ramon, who will be a freshman at Cal this fall. The two are acquaintances from playing in junior events in the Bay Area.
“I found out about this tournament through Sebastien,” said Hy. “He got me to apply and I was fortunate enough to get in.”
The field is divided into a College Division and Mid-Amateur Division, and the college players will also have a team competition based on the combined scores of the low two players from the same team.
Ole Miss won the team competition in 2017 and tied with Mississippi State last year. Other schools to win the team competition include Southern Miss, Texas-San Antonio and Houston.
Mid-amateurs, non-college players age 25 or older with a USGA handicap of 3.4 or lower, were prominent in the early years of the tournament, but now it is mostly college players in the field. Just 16 mid-ams are scheduled to tee off on Friday, including a player from Wales.
Among the local contingent are five players from USM, senior Matt Lorenz, juniors Hunter Atkins, Brian Richards and Brice Wilkinson, and sophomore Joey Kirkland, as well as head coach Eddie Brescher and assistant coach Avery Owens.
William Carey University will also have a player in the field in rising senior Colby Blake, and there will be a local father-son duo playing with Hattiesburg physician Michael Hammett and his son Hunter, who plays for Louisiana-Lafayette, in the field.
For more information, including tee times and results, log onto the tournament’s website at magnoliaamateur.com.
