Recalling highlights of Southwest Louisiana’s golf season

Published 7:19 pm Sunday, December 31, 2017

Championships won by Greg Sonnier, the McNeese State Cowboy golf team, Matt Nicholas and Brooke Tyree highlighted the area golf scene in 2017.

Sonnier, the assistant professional at the Lake Charles Country Club, won the Gulf States Assistant PGA Professional Championship and placed 17th in the national tournament.

He also captained the LCCC team that won the Louisiana state men’s club championship for the second year in a row.

The Cowboys golf team won its second consecutive Southland Conference title, only the second time that McNeese has won back-to-back league crowns.

Leading the way was Blake Elliott with a fifth-place showing in the conference tournament. Austin Burk picked up his second consecutive SLC Coach of the Year Crown.

The Cowboys finished 10th in a NCAA regional tournament.

Nicholas dominated the area’s city championships, winning both the Westlake and Sulphur titles and becoming the all-time leading city champion with 10 titles.

He has won the Sulphur (2017, ’16, ’04) and Westlake (2017, ’16, ’14) three times each and the Lake Charles city four times (2016, ’14, ’04, ’01).

The other men’s city champion for the year was Gage Primeaux who won the Lake Charles city title.

Westlake hosted the lone women’s city championship tournament, and Pam Fossett won that title for the third year in a row.

Tyree, who is slated to enroll at Texas A&M next fall, was the top female junior golfer in the state and one of the nation’s leaders. Not only did she lead Sulphur High to its third consecutive Division I title, but she also won her second Louisiana junior amateur title and teamed with Carly Whittington to take the state’s four-ball crown.

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Primeaux was one of the area’s club champions as he also won the Mallard Cove event. Other men’s champions were Chris Walling (LCCC), Logan Kuehn (Gray Plantation) and Todd Brousssard (Frasch Park in Sulphur).

Women champions were Tee Labuff (Mallard), Alexis Trahan (LCCC) and Becky Meaux (Gray).

Senior champions were: Men — Sid Bradley (Gray), Roger Faulk (LCCC) and Randy Tadlock (Mallard Cove). Women — Bobbie Arnold (Gray), Idell Cogbill (LCCC) and Diane Schexnider (Mallard Cove).

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Primeaux was also one of two local high school golfers who won state prep titles. He took the Division I crown for Barbe while Eric Brown won Division IV for Hamilton Christian, which was the team runner-up.

For the girls, Lacassine won the Division II team title with team member Daphney Tilton tying St. Louis Catholic’s McKenzie LeDuff for second place.

Sulphur won the girls Division I crown and Tyree placed second.

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Other highlights during the year were:

n The National in Westlake won the Lake Charles Cup match for the fourth time.

n Eric Kaspar took over as the head professional at The National, replacing his brother Dave.

n Ben Holcombe and Glen Granger teamed to take runner-up honors in the Louisiana senior four ball tournament.

n McNeese golfer Riley Issac won the Louisiana women’s state amateur.

n Pam Fossett, Chris Stoute and Paula Karam were members of the Louisiana women’s team that won the senior Tri-state championship.

n Hank Shaheen finished third in the Louisiana mid-amateur.

n The Southwest Louisiana Junior Golf Association established the $1,000 Mike Heinen scholarship to be awarded each year to a boy or girl who played golf for a Calcasieu Parish High school and is attending or will attend McNeese or Sowela Tech.

n Steven Fox won the APT (all pro tournament, formerly Adams) tournament at The National with a tournament record 28-under par.

n Former McNeese golfers Robert MacIntyre (Sahara Kuwait on the Mena Tour) and Martin Erikkson (Oakley tournament in Sweden) won professional tournaments.

n Former McNeese MVP Adrien Mork was named an assistant golf coach at Texas Christian. He had served as assistant coach at Central Florida. One claim to fame that Mork had as a professional player was that he was the first to ever shoot a 59 in any European tour event.

n Cowboys golfer Ian Berrigan won the San Antonio men’s city title played at The Quarry. His effort included a 10-under-par 62 the second day.

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Louis Bonnette has written about local golf for the American Press since 1971. His column appears each Sunday. Contact him at 274-5689 or lbonnette@mcneese.edu