When Shayne Bennett and his buddies didn’t qualify in their first attempt at Highland Walk Golf Club at Victoria Bryant State Park to get into the Georgia State Parks First Annual Cup Championship, his wife encouraged him to try again. Since there was one more qualifier on the schedule at nearby Arrowhead Pointe Golf Club at Richard B. Russell State Park, he rounded up his gang and signed up again. This time it worked.
Taking full advantage of that mulligan, the team of Kevin Dye, Billy Bryant, Todd Yeargin and Shayne won their place in the final championship. Two weeks later at the same course, the foursome won the overall championship played in a scramble format with a mighty 17 under 55. They competed against fourteen other teams who qualified at one of the eight Georgia State Parks courses throughout the Peach State.
“We putted great,” Bennett said. “Kevin could have putted with his eyes closed and it still would have gone in. It was just one of those days where everything went really well.”
The foursome of Jon Floyd, Ben Floyd, Jonathan Pickle and Patrick Edwards took second in a tiebreaker card
choice over the team of Ryan Haugh, Michael Dudzinski, Nate Carter and Dalton Bradley after both teams carded 58s.
The winning group plays a lot of golf together, but rarely play Arrowhead Pointe. Bennett, Dye and Bryant are members at Elberton Country Club while Yeargin belongs to Cateechee Golf Club in Hartwell. They can normally be found playing together in a weekend match.
“It was really an honor to win the first Georgia State Parks Cup,” said Shayne. ” It was something I wasn’t sure we could do, but somehow we were able to win.”
Besides the Trophy, the winners received a weekend at the beautiful Brasstown Valley Resort & Spa in Young Harris, Georgia.
The Georgia State Parks golf courses are part of the Georgia Golf Trail, a selection of 27 outstanding golf resorts and courses covering the state from the mountains, to the plains to the ocean. Georgia is the home of the great Bobby Jones, The Masters and the PGA TOUR Championship which will be contested September 1-5, 2021 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.