Panthers, individuals play in golf state tournament

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer

FLORENCE — The Hackleburg Panthers and a few individual golfers qualified for the 2024 AHSAA State Golf Tournament on May 13 and 14.
After a strong showing and second-place finish at sectionals, the Panthers advanced to the sub-state tournament.
They won second place again at sub-state, shooting a total of 323 to finish behind North Sand Mountain who shot 300.
At sub-state, Aiden Pimentel, shot 74, and Noah Pimentel shot 80 to tie with Noah Tubb. Daughtry Gober shot 89.
The state tournament was divided into two days with 18 holes each, but the second was cut down to nine holes due to weather.
On day one, Aiden Pimentel shot a total of 77, which was only five over par. Noah Pimentel shot 92, Noah Tubb shot 97 and Daughtry Gober shot 106.
The Panthers’ total team score for day one was 372.
Since the second day was cut short, results were based on day one scores.
On day two, Aiden shot 39 on the first nine, Noah Pimentel shot 47, Tubb shot 51 and Gober shot 52.
“We finished fourth at state, but we ran into a tough course and two bad days,” said Hackleburg Golf Coach  Steven Sutherland. “We didn’t have our best stuff going those two days.
“The second day we only played nine holes because of rain. Our number one guy still played quality golf, but the other three guys had a bad two-day stretch.”
After the Panthers’ success this year after not having a golf team for some time, Sutherland says he is optimistic for next year.
“This was our first year having golf in a while. It’s probably been over 15 years,” he said. “We had a solid season. We were led by Aiden Pimentel and Noah Pimentel, who are brothers. Noah’s a senior, and Aiden is a tenth grader.
“Aiden is our number one guy, and Noah is our number two guy, so we’re going to miss Noah a lot.
“I think we’ll have a chance to have a good run at it next year. The returning four are two juniors, one sophomore and one senior, so we’ll have two or three more years of  decent golf, I think.”
The Hamilton Aggies did not qualify for state as a team, but did have an individual player qualify.
The Aggies won the county tournament, eventually ending up at the sectional tournament.
The Aggies finished fifth, just missing out of sub-state.
Spencer Tyra advanced to sub-state as an individual qualifier after shooting 77 at sectionals.
Sawyer Tyra played in a playoff at sectionals to also advance, but lost before he could advance.
Spencer Tyra shot a 71 at sub-state and advanced to the state finals.
At state, Spencer shot a total of 78, based on his day one score since day two was rained out. He placed 13th over all.
Hamilton Golf Coach Ethan Lawler said he was proud of the season.
“We had a really good golf season this year,” Lawler said. “We had two new golfers join us this year, then we had Spencer Tyra, Sawyer Tyra and Kaden Whitaker as returners. We had Kel Battle and Sam Moore both join our golf team this year.
“Tyler Williams was also on the team from last year. But our two new ones really helped us out. We did really well.”
The Winfield Pirates also had an individual qualifier advance to state.
Elliott Overton tied for sixth in the state tournament, shooting a total of 119 between day one (80) and a shortened day two (39).
Overton placed first earlier that season in the county and WAC tournaments, which coach Ryan Carothers said Overton has done several years in a row.
 Overton shot 76 at the 3A section 4 tournament to advance to sub-state. At sub-state he placed in the top two to advance to state.
Carothers said the weather interruption hurt Overton’s game since he was doing so well up until that point.
“He got cut to nine holes the second day,” he said. “He was making a move. He’d already moved up five or six spots, but he just ran out of holes. But that’s part of it.”
Looking back, Carothers said this season was unique due to the number of young players he gained this year.