Eagles’ Golfers advance to Regional Tournament

By Seymour Herald staff writer seditor@seymourherald.com Some nice teamwork led to a late rally, which in turn led to an opportunity to play in the regional tournament for the first time in several years for the Seymour Eagles. After the first nine holes in the district tournament, played last week at Three Ridges Golf Course in Knoxville, the Eagles trailed The Christian Academy of Knoxville and Carter by wide margins and were dueling with Alcoa for the final spot. Alcoa had a slim lead over the Eagles and Assistant Coach Lee Ramsey was beginning to get a little nervous as he occasionally caught a glimpse of the leader board while keeping score for the other teams. The three teams with the lowest final scores as well as the three lowest individual scores advance to the Region. The coaches for the teams do not have the opportunity to be with their respective teams during the competition. Instead, they have to keep the scorecard for the competition and keep their collective fingers crossed that their teams remember all the lessons and pep talks from matches and practices past. “Basically what happened is I was scoring another group and had know idea how our guys were doing,” said Ramsey. “ I went through after the first nine holes and CAK, Carter and Alcoa were ahead of us at the turn. All of their players had shot in the 30’s and all of our players had shot in the 40’s, so it didn’t look good. But then on the back nine we came back and everybody improved their scores.” Seymour passed Alcoa on the back nine as four out of five players remedied their games and finished with scores in the 70’s after the final round was complete. The highest score on the team was a respectable 80. “I’m real proud of the entire team for not giving up and raising their games on the back nine,” Ramsey commented. “We were clearly fourth at that point and that would have put us out of the region. But the team pulled together and came through.” Kevin Ramsey shot a 74 on the day. His score was the lowest on the team and one of the lowest in the tournament but what makes it even more impressive is that the round included a double and a triple bogey. Ramsey was three under after eight holes and had birdied every other hole, but shot a triple bogey on nine and finished with an even par 36 on the front nine. On the back nine he shot par on every hole until he reached 18 where he hit a double bogey. The Eagles played in the regional tournament Monday at Centennial Golf Course in Oak Ridge. The competition gets tougher at every step from here on, but Ramsey and the Eagles understand that each of those steps is a step in the right direction. “It’s a big step for our program,” Lee Ramsey concluded. “Just to make it to the next level. We haven’t been able to earn a spot in the regional for several years. Last year’s team didn’t really come close but we have pretty much the same players, so that just shows how much each of them have improved. It’s an exciting time for the team.”