Bryce Ledford Wins Red Bud
By Two Stokes

While sitting in their golf cart on the No. 17 tee Sunday afternoon, Bryce Ledford and Adam Mitchell had to be thinking about their Friday night conversation.

That was when Mitchell, a 17-year-old who will be a senior this fall at McCallie, called his former teammate, Ledford, to ask for some advice for playing the Valleybrook Golf and Country Club course during the weekend's annual Red Bud Invitational.

Ledford, who will be a sophomore this fall at UT-Chattanooga, gets to practice at Valleybrook with the Mocs and knows the course better than Mitchell, who was his teammate at McCallie when the Blue Tornado won the state golf championship.

Ledford talked, and Mitchell listened.

On Saturday, they each shot a 2-under 69 to trail leader Philip Guess by two shots.

At the No. 17 tee box on Sunday, they shared the tournament lead at 3-under. No advice was given.

Ledford made a 3-foot birdie putt on the par 5 and Mitchell flew the green with his second shot and only managed a par.

Finally, the 19-year-old Ledford had a lead on his buddy and it held up for the championship of the Red Bud.

Ledford finished at 138 (69x69) for a two-stroke victory over Mitchell (69x71) and Matt Mathis (69x71). Finishing at 141 were Guess (67x74), Chris Gilliland (73x68) and Josh Coley (74x67).

"That was a pretty big win,'' Ledford said. "This is a good tournament.''

The victory was the second for Ledford in non-junior tournament. He won the Don Malarkey Open last year and will defend there on June 28-29 at Signal Mountain.

So how much help did Ledford give Mitchell on Sunday afternoon?

"No help today,'' Ledford said, "but Adam is awesome. Anybody who shoots a 60 (Mitchell did in a junior tournament recently in Memphis) is awesome. He hung in there all day today. I thought he was going to make putts on 17 and 18, but he just missed both. It freaked me out.''

Ledford had birdies on Nos. 3, 4, 11 and 17 Sunday, and an eagle on No. 8. He made bogeys on Nos. 1, 5, 12 and 14. When he made the bogey on No. 14, it got the field closer to him.

"That was a stupid play on 14,'' he said. "I clipped a tree trying to get it close. I should have punched it. But everybody in my group was getting it so close to the hole, I didn't want to make bogey.''

On No. 17, Ledford had a powerful drive that left him only 196 yards to the pin. He hit a 5-iron pin-high left.

"I pulled it a little,'' Ledford left. "I got it within 3-4 feet and made the putt, but really I wanted to get it just past the hole if I missed.''

Mitchell's drive on No. 17 finished on a side-hill lie. His shot flew the green and his chip rolled 25-feet past the cup. He just missed the putt, and his 1-foot par putt left him a shot behind Ledford.

On No. 18, Mitchell just missed a 15-footer that could have forced a playoff. He didn't make his par putt coming back, finishing two shots behind Ledford.

"I knew I had to make birdie on 18,'' Mitchell said. "But we had fun and I'm glad Bryce won. I didn't make any putts on the back, in fact, I had no birdies on the back.

"On No. 17, I just hit my second shot too good. I didn't think it would come out of there like that. But it was a good tournament, and shoot no, I didn't get any advice from Bryce today.''

Said Ledford, "I hit the ball good today. UTC practices here on Fridays. I used to hate these greens, but now I know how to read them. It was a huge advantage.''

Mathis birdied Nos. 15 and 16 to get to 2-under, but wasn't able to birdie the par 5 17^th.

"Still, I was pleased because of how little I've been playing,'' he said. "The course was hard and fast yesterday, and soft and pretty average today. This place tricks up everybody. The scores are never very low here.''

Richard Cummins (74x75-149) won the Senior Division over Neil Spitalny (74x76-150).

(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)