Jun. 28—MOULTRIE — 128 golfers participated in Friday's 26th Annual Chamber of Commerce golf tournament, which was played on the Sunset Country Club 18-hole course.

"We had eight teams in the morning flight, and 24 in the afternoon," said Caitlyn Hatcher, who works at the Moultrie Chamber of Commerce and helped organize this event.

This event was a four-man scramble, and each participant was able to purchase one mulligan for themselves for $10.

The names of all teams who participated in the golf tournament were: Colony Bank, PCOM South Georgia, Prospex, Hampton Inn, Freedom Logistics, Edwards Jones Financial Advisor — Ralph E. Taylor, Canfor, Southeastern Credit Union, Ameris Bank, Mattco Realtors, Commercial Banking Company, The First, Southern Tractor and Outdoors, Kinetic by Windstream, Ben Fuller & Pax Clark, Colquitt EMC, First National Bank of Moultrie, Sunbelt Ag Expo, AgGeorgia Farm Credit, Sanderson Farms, Concrete Enterprises, Colquitt Regional Medical Center, Quality Employment Services, Chick-Fil-A of Moultrie, Rossman Apiaries, Universal Forest Products of Moultrie, Lasseter Tractor Company, Southern Valley, Syngenta and Holiday Inn.

Between flights lunch was provided, sponsored by Lasseter Tractor and Lasseter Motor.

"We always do a 50/50 raffle after lunch," said Hatcher. "In past years we have just drawn a ticket out of a jar, but this year we wanted to do something more fun."

For golfers to join the ball drop it was $5 for one golf ball, or five for $20. Each person's raffle number was written on each purchased ball and added into the collection.

The ball drop raised $1,410 dollars, which will be split evenly between the Chamber of Commerce and the winner of the ball drop.

All golfers, staff members and volunteers of the tournament gathered by a practice putting hole to see which golf ball would land closest to the pin.

Crosby Tree Removal sponsored the ball drop by using a bucket truck to get the golf balls directly above the hole.

It took longer for the lift to get in position than it did for the balls to find their placement on the ground.

Roughly 75 feet in the air, it took all of 10 seconds to watch the rainbow of golf balls rain down.

Raffle No. 379, Ricky Dell of the Freedom Logistics Team, was the winner. Instead of keeping the $705, Dell donated all the money back to Sunset Country Club to assist with kids' golf lessons and camps.

"It's for a really good cause," said Moultrie resident RJ Taylor, who competed on the Edward Jones team. "It's just a game with you and yourself. It's a mental game, and I love that this tournament is no pressure and just for fun and a good cause."

At the end of the event, all 32 teams' final scores were compared and the winners given their prizes.

"We give first place and second place prizes for both net and gross scores," said Hatcher. "The winners of the teams will get to come up and choose one item."

The first and second places prizes, door prizes and closest to pin prizes were sponsored by the following business as well as all Chamber Champion businesses: Stone's Home Center, Eagles of America Inc., J&J Roofing and Construction, JCI Contractors, Kinetic by Windstream and Canfor, Cranfords, Niday Drug Company, Griner Jewelry, Turner's Budget Furniture and Dalton's.

First place winners got to choose between a large, hard-cased Yeti cooler or a staff bag, while second place received either a small, soft-cased Yeti cooler or an iron club. All second place winners also received a baseball cap from Canfor.

"This was my first year playing in the tournament," said DeWayne Wise, who was born in Moultrie and now lives in Valdosta. ""This is a fun course.I was impressed and had a good time. I hope to come back next year."

Wise completed the course with -3.

The team of Southern Valley, whose golfers were Adam Anderson, Chandler Grimes, Landon Brette and Zac Goodno, won first place in gross with a final score of 55.

The second place for gross was Chick-fil-A of Moultrie with 56. Wesley Rogers, Jeff Jursick, Jonathan Bridges and Jared Bridges played on this team.

Net points saw the team of Colony Bank win first with a final score of 52.7. This team included Horace Hudgins, Randy Yawn, Al Whittington and Jeffrey Hester.

With a final score of 53, the team of Commercial Bank, which included golfers Steve Stripling, Chad Eunice, Russ Davis and Richard Edwards won second place in net.

Other sponsors for this event include JB Concrete and Masonry Inc. as the water sponsor, Quality Employment Service as snack sponsor, and Lasseter Motor even sponsored a brand new 2023 Tra Chevrolet on hole 16 for the first person to get a hole-in-one on that particular hole.

Unfortunately, this year no one won the car. The golfers will need to return next year to try again.