Terrors win 7th region golf title under Zito

Apr. 21—Glynn Academy's boys golf team defeated Lee County at Georgia Southern University Golf Course in a two-hole playoff after finishing with a 322 total score on Monday to claim their seventh region title under coach Mike Zito. The

Sophomores Grady Sanders and Williamson Mosher paced the Terrors as they both scored 79 on the day. The other two scores to round out their final total was junior Ellis Long with an 81 and sophomore Maddox Stroud with an 83.

Senior Joe Carter and sophomore Shep Davenport were the other two competing in the event as they both finished with 85 on the round.

"The outcome was what we were looking for. I thought the Georgia Southern University golf course was a great layout — it was very beautiful, but it's very difficult," Zito said. "The greens are very hard to read, and the speed of them was even more difficult. We could not get the speed of the greens down, and because of that, we had a lot of three-putts.

"It showed in the scores, but it was, again, a very difficult windy day. The scores were high for a lot of players. Our 79s were the third and fourth-best scores all day, and there were two 70s — one from a kid that's going to Georgia Southern next year and another one from Richmond Hill. It was tough conditions all the way around, but in the end, we had a playoff with Lee County. They shot 322 as well."

Zito said they tied with Lee on the first hole after their No. 5 guy made birdied but persevered on the second playoff hole to win it all.

There were 11 teams at the event on Monday, where each team had six players, and the top four scores are taken. The two top teams earn automatic bids into the state tournament, while the third and fourth-best team will compete in Sectionals on May 3 at Jekyll Island Golf Club.

Zito has won seven of eight region titles since taking the job at Glynn Academy and said he was so proud of this group for fighting through those harsh conditions.

"We've only played that golf course one time. It was difficult conditions, and we had difficulty on the greens, but to watch them pull it through in the end, I think it was a great experience for them," Zito said. "I think it's only going to help them going forward. It was a good thing because you could see the nerves, but it turned out well for us. I hated that we had to do that, but as I said, had we putted it a little bit better, we wouldn't have been in that position."

One of their seniors, Trey Pralinski, had an injury so he wasn't able to play. Zito said just like football, it's next man up, and a lot of the younger golfers stepped up to win.

"If somebody gets injured, can't play or is just not playing well, we're just going to play the next best six players that we got at this time and go with it," Zito said. "Without Trey, we still pulled it off. That says something about our team. I think that we got a little depth. We got some young players that showed up big — Grady Sanders, Williamson Mosher, Ellis Long and Shep Davenport."

Zito said his message to his team has been the same all season — take the shot you get and don't get ahead of yourself. He said they did that on Monday.

"We have a good group of players that are all hard workers," Zito said. "In the end, I think that hard work kind of paid off because they persevered. They handled themselves with class, even having to go into a playoff. They were ready to go. They're really excited, which is what you want to see, and they're ready good to go win it."

The state tournament will be held on May 17 and 18 at Sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton.