No. 2 Bulldogs ready to tee it up at District

PERKINSTON — All the golfers on No. 2 Mississippi Gulf Coast's squad know the history of the program in region/district tournaments.

Gulf Coast has won 12 of the last 13 such tournaments dating back to 2008. 

"It's the first thing they see when they come into our locker room," first-year coach Brad Thornton said. They're reminded of what's expected of them in this program each and every year. I think they're hungry for it, and I look forward to seeing them tee it up."

The Bulldogs have a shot at making it 13-for-14 starting Monday in the NJCAA Gulf District Championship. The two-day, 36-hole event will be played at Kirkwood National Golf Club in Holly Springs. Live scoring will be available at https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=25133. 

The top two teams plus the next five individuals not on those squads will advance to the NJCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships in Joplin, Mo, on May 17-20.

Gulf Coast is ranked second in the latest Bushnell Golfweek NJCAA Division II Coaches Poll, which came out Friday, with Meridian sixth. Five teams qualified for the tournament, with Northeast Mississippi, Copiah-Lincoln and Pearl River also making the trip to Holly Springs. 

Gulf Coast finished second in the MACCC Championship two weeks ago. The only time during this stretch of region/district wins the Bulldogs lost was in 2017. That team finished third at state and second at region, but went on to finish second at the NJCAA Tournament after nearly going wire-to-wire atop the leaderboard.

"I think we're trending upward," Thornton said. "The guys know it's time to put their foot down and take care of business. We've had a good week of practice. We're going to head up Saturday and get two rounds of practice in at the golf course." 

Kirkwood National hasn't been a host for an MACCC event in some time, but it's got an excellent reputation. It was a last-minute substation for another course that wasn't able to make the grade. Thornton said the ownership was excited to host the tournament.

"I don't know that many people in our conference have set foot on property," he said. "I know I haven't, but we're going to be focused from the time we get there Saturday afternoon to the time we tee it up Monday. Hopefully, Tuesday we'll be bringing home a district championship."

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