Darton golfers lead region tournament after two rounds

MOULTRIE — Darton State College men’s golf coach Gary Hilton has a theory about his team’s Region 17 junior college golf tournament.

The Cavaliers have taken top honors for the past 14 straight seasons. Hilton would like nothing more than for his team to win the final one in the school’s history. Darton is merging with Albany State after the season.

“Winning 15 straight sounds a lot better than winning 14 straight,” Hilton said. “We’d like to end it winning 15 in a row for Darton golf.”

The Cavaliers took a giant step toward making Hilton’s goal a reality on Monday in the region tournament at the Sunset Country Club. Darton shot a 593 after two rounds, 17 strokes over par and nine strokes ahead of second-place Georgia Northwestern.

ABAC was third after shooting a 605, Andrew was fourth with a 627 and GMC was fifth (717).

Finlay Mason shot a 67 in the first round, then followed with a 74 in the afternoon round to finish at 141 and lead the field. He is three strokes under par.

Other Darton golfers include Hunter Tidwell (80-74), Josh Robertson (75-77), Rob Simpson (79-76) and Harrison Mohr (76-73).

The Cavaliers trailed by a stroke after the first round but picked up the pace in the second round to take the lead. The final round of the 54-hole tournament begins with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

“Finlay kept us in the lead with his 67, but then he didn’t shoot too well in the afternoon,” Hilton said. “But the rest of our guys stepped up like we expected them to. I’m always happy when we finish in the lead.”

Hilton said he urged his team to play like it was a one-day tournament.

“Hopefully, we can get the last round in before the rain (today),” Hilton said. “I’d like for us to compete and earn it.”