EMCC Lions place eighth in MACCC men’s golf event held at River Birch in Amory

AMORY — East Mississippi Community College put together back-to-back rounds of 348 to finish eighth as a team at the Itawamba Community College-hosted MACCC men's golf tournament held this past Monday and Tuesday at River Birch Golf Club.

Coming off last week's first EMCC men's golf competition in three years, Coach Ashton Maddaloni's EMCC Lions were in seventh place following Monday's action at the 6,841-yard, par-72 layout in Amory.  After her team settled in with a two-day total of 696, EMCC's first-year head coach remained optimistic about her inexperienced team moving forward.

"We haven't even reached the cusp of what these guys can do.  The scores we've posted this fall don't show the potential that I see in all of them," Maddaloni noted.

Individually for EMCC earlier this week, Matthew Phillips followed an opening-round, 4-over-par 76 with an 80 on Tuesday to finish 24^th overall with a two-day score of 156.

Payton Chandler, who was the Lions' top finisher a week ago at the season-opening, Hinds-hosted tourney, shaved eight strokes off his first-round score to shoot a 78 on Tuesday and place 33^rd overall at 164.

The trio of Lawson Studdard (96-90—186/47^th), Thomas Jackson (92-100/48^th) and Will Teague (94-101—195/49^th) rounded out East Mississippi's scoring at the ICC-hosted event.

"We need to improve our course management, avoid the big numbers, and make more of our birdie opportunities," Maddaloni added.  "Bad shots are going to happen, but we need to learn how to minimize the damage."

The EMCC Lions are scheduled to compete in their next MACCC men's golf tournament, Oct. 25-26, at Windance Country Club in Gulfport.  The upcoming two-day event will be hosted by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.