Second Title

The Clay County connection struck again! In 2004, high school junior Trey Bowling won the Pepsi Invitational Golf Tournament at the Tri-County Country Club, beating high school teammate, Nathan White 131-135.
Last year it was White’s turn as a junior to win the Pepsi Invitational over Jason Pullins by one stroke.
The trio were in contention once again for the 2006 Pepsi Invitational title. And after two days of play there was a three-way tie. Tied at 136 were Bowling, Pullins and White, the three front-runners in the last two tournaments.
A playoff hole was needed to determine the 2006 champion. It didn’t take long as Pullins bogied hole number one while White finished with a par. It was Bowling who birdied the hole and walked away with his second title in three years.
However, beginning the second day of competition, it was Corbin’s Brad Harris in the lead by a stroke over Pullins, 67-68. Jason Vance went into Sunday in third place with a 69.
Bowling was five back with a 72 and White trailed the leader by six strokes.
But, it didn’t take long for the Clay County connection to get back in the hunt for their second title. Bowling finished the front nine with a four-under par 31. Vance and White had also cut into the lead with a pair of three-under 32s. Pullins was even for the front nine but Harris had fell behind the new leader, Vance by five strokes.
Harris saw his lead disappear on the par 5 number three hole when it took him seven shots to sink his ball in the cup.
The five went to the back nine with Vance holding a two-stroke lead over Bowling and Pullins. White was four back at that point.
White made up the most ground on the back nine as he shot four under to finish the day with a seven under, 63. He closed out the day with five birdies and forced a playoff with former teammate, Bowling and Pullins with a 136.
Vance, who had the lead at the mid-way point, shot a two over on the back nine. He had trouble on the final two holes when he bogied both.
Other winners in the 27th Annual event were: John Copeland in the first flight, Tom Wethington in the second flight; Robert Dial in the third flight and Tommy Stewart in the fourth flight. Anthony House won the fifth flight and John Johnson took the sixth flight.
One of the tightest matches came in the sixth flight where Johnson had to come from behind to beat Al Seacrest. Seacrest led by two strokes heading into the 14th hole. Johnson pulled out the win when Seacrest bogied the 14th, 15th and 16th while Johnson had a birdie on the 14th and 17th.
Copeland held off Brad Mullins to win the first flight, 141-144. Kermit Coffey had the best second round with a 69 and finished tied with Ron Garland with a 146.
Tom Wethington started the second day with a two-stroke lead over Denis Jones and pulled away for a five-stroke win, 144-149. Robert Tolliver tied with Jones for second but lost a scorecard playoff. Tolliver shot a 73 on the second day.
All tournament scores can be found in today’s SCOREBOARD on page C-3.