Georgia residents Trey Mullinax and Chris Wolfe won two of three January tournaments on the Swing Thought Tour played along the Georgia coast.
Mullinax, a St. Simons Island resident and a 2016 Web.com Tour member, won a tournament Jan. 12-13 at Brunswick CC, shooting 9-under 133 for 36 holes to finish two strokes ahead of recent UGA golfer Joey Garber. Mullinax, a member of Alabama’s NCAA championship teams in 2013 and ’14, posted scores of 67-66, carding birdies on four of his last six holes in the second round. Garber shot 67-68.
The victory was worth $5,000 to Mullinax, with Garber taking home $2,000. Keith Mitchell, a St. Simons resident and teammate of Garber’s at UGA, was third at 66-70—136. Recent Georgia Southern golfer Scott Wolfes of St. Simons was sixth at 66-72—138, with Athens’ Dylan Freeman, who played collegiately at Coastal Georgia, tying for seventh at 139.
Wolfe, a Warner Robins native who played at Armstrong Atlantic, won by four shots at Sapelo Hammock the following week with scores of 68-68—136, 8-under par. Chip Deason of Evans was second at 140, with Freeman, Savannah’s Drew Aimone and ex-UGA golfer Michael Cromie third at 141. Wolfe led by one after an opening 68, then pulled away from his challengers with a 6-under 30 on the front nine the next day. He earned $5,000 for his victory.
Wolfe shot 66-70—136 (6-under) at Sanctuary Cove Jan. 26-27 to finish second, six shots behind Luke McClellan of Charleston. Tying for third at 137 were Deason, Aimone, Forsyth’s Jay McLuen, recent Mercer golfer Trey Rule of Eatonton and Ringgold’s Hunter Cornelius, a teammate of Freeman at Coastal Georgia.
The tournaments were part of the Carolina Series. In a Florida Series event played Jan. 20-22 at Rio Pinar CC in Orlando, recent Georgia Tech golfer Bo Andrews finished second at 8-under 136, one shot behind the winner. Suwanee’s Seth Reeves, Andrews’ teammate at Georgia Tech, was fourth at 138, with Garber seventh at 140.
The Swing Thought Tour was launched last year when the former Hooters and eGolf Tours were separately purchased and the tours combined into one. With the demise of the Peach State Tour after the 2014 season, Georgia’s mini-tour players have had their options reduced from three tours to one, with the Swing Thought Tour most resembling the Hooters Tour, which played events throughout the Southeast for some 25 years.
The Swing Thought Tour’s Pro Series, which is essentially a continuation of the Hooters Tour, begins March 2-5 at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, and includes events at long-time Hooters Tour stops just outside Augusta at Savannah Lakes in McCormick, S.C., and in North Augusta, S.C., as well as Georgia events at Grand Island in Albany and Sapelo Hammock on the Georgia coast.
The Pro Series events consist of 72-hole tournaments with purses of $120,000. The Carolina and Florida Series are either 36 or 54 holes with smaller fields and smaller purses. An Atlanta Series was originally listed on the Swing Thought web site, but that is no longer the case.