EMCC men’s golf falls one shot shy of district invite with playoff loss in MACCC Championship

PASS CHRISTIAN – The East Mississippi Community College men's golf team came up one shot shy of qualifying for the NJCAA Gulf District Championship after falling to Jones College in a playoff after both teams tied for fourth place at this week's MACCC Championship. The two-day conference tournament concluded Wednesday at The Oaks Golf Club.

After improving 18 strokes and three places from Tuesday's opening round, the Lions carded a final-round 306 that marked the third-best team score of the two-day tournament ranked only behind team champion Mississippi Gulf Coast's winning rounds of 276 and 289. EMCC's two-day total of 630 tied with Jones for fourth place, which resulted in a two-hole playoff won by the Bobcats.

The top four team finishers from the MACCC Championship - MGCCC, Meridian, Northeast Mississippi and Jones - plus district tournament host Copiah-Lincoln, which placed sixth at this week's conference championship, advanced to the NJCAA Gulf District Championship. The Co-Lin Wolves earned the fifth team entry into district play by way of receiving an automatic bid for being the school host for the upcoming district tournament (April 20-21) at Beau Pre' Country Club in Natchez.

Despite EMCC narrowly missing out on advancing to the district championship as a collective team, Matthew Phillips and Carter Martin both qualified individually based on their season-long play and conference championship performances for the Lions. Phillips will be a repeat district tourney participant after finishing 22^nd at last year's district event played at Kirkwood National Golf Club in Holly Springs. The Columbus Christian Academy product earned his fifth top-10 finish of the 2022-23 season by placing ninth at the MACCC Championship with rounds of 77 and 73 for a two-day score of 150.

Martin finished in a three-way tie for 17^th place with a two-round total of 158 after improving six strokes and jumping 11 places with Wednesday's 4-over-par 76. The Canton Academy product earned his district tournament entry by finishing the MACCC event as one of the top five individual golfers not competing on the five conference teams that are headed to the district championship.

With all five of EMCC's golfers shooting 79 or better during Wednesday's final round in Pass Christian this week, Lion freshman Daniel Martin (Parrish, AL/Oakman HS) tied for 22^nd place with a two-round total of 160 (81-79).

Spence Davis, a transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast by way of Madison Central High School, matched Carter Martin's six-shot improvement and 11-place jump by carding a second-round 78 to finish in a four-way tie for 25^th place.

Rounding out EMCC's scorecard for head coach Ashton Maddaloni at the MACCC Championship was Ben Boggan (Yazoo City/Benton Academy), whose final-round 79 landed the freshman in a 47^th-place tie.

The Bulldogs of Mississippi Gulf Coast (276-289—565) claimed their 15^th conference championship in men's golf with a dominant 52-shot victory over runner-up Meridian (307-310—617). Northeast Mississippi finished third (307-320—627), while Jones put together duplicate rounds of 315 to claim fourth-place honors (630) following the playoff with EMCC.

Individually on the 7,006-yard, par-72 layout, Gulf Coast's Chase Kaiser earned medalist honors with a two-day score of 134 (65-69) to finish ahead of teammates Alessio Graziani (68-74—142) and Will Burnham (73-70—143).