JMA boys, GMC girls win county golf cups
Apr. 10—Baldwin County's best high school golfers got the opportunity to see how they stack up against one another back on March 25.
Little Fishing Creek played host to the 2024 Baldwin County Cup, a competitive nine-hole event that saw John Milledge Academy's boys beat GMC Prep by a nose at 175-178 while GMC's girls edged JMA by a hair at 112-113.
Each school with the individual low medalist won the team battle as Carson Bache led the Trojans and the male field with a 37. GMC junior Madi Grace Simmons fired a 43 to take the individual female title.
In the boys competition, Bache's impressive 37, the only round of the day in the 30s, was backed up by a 44 from Hunter Stalnaker along with twin 47s from Justin England and Austin Brooks. Grant Edens shot a 40 to pace the Bulldog boys, who won an area championship last spring. He was followed by Josh Walker's 43, Connor Zecca's 44, and Caden Loyd's 51 to round out the scoring.
Where high school boys golf takes a team's top four scorers into account, the girls side uses only the top two. The girls county crown for 2024 belongs to GMC Prep thanks to Simmons' 43 and Lydia Brown's 69, which was just enough to beat out Lady Trojans Jordan Prestridge (52) and Maggie Prestwood (61). Baldwin sent one female golfer in Teah Iossifov to the event. Her score didn't figure into any team totals, but she shot a 46 to finish only three strokes behind Simmons in the girls low medal race. Simmons helped the GMC girls to an area championship and fifth-place finish at state last year. As an individual, she took eighth in the field of over 30 GHSA Class A Division 2 female golfers in 2023.
The regular season is winding down for local golf teams as they prepare for their upcoming region/area tournaments. John Milledge is up first at River Forest Golf Club in Forsyth on Monday. GMC has a short trek east to Twin City Country Club in Tennille on April 22, and Baldwin's Iossifov will head to Forest Heights Country Club in Statesboro.
