Good times — and good scores — were had by most at the Viking Invitational golf tournament on Thursday.

Nearly half the field shot under 90, including four golfers from Warren Central. The home team posted its lowest team score in three years and finished fifth in the standings at Clear Creek Golf Course.

Warren Central had a team score of 339. Madison Central finished first, with 312, and had three golfers finish in the top five on the individual leaderboard.

“That’s our best team score since 2019 when we finished in the top five in the state. The boys have continued to work hard on their game and were able to put it together today,” Warren Central coach Matt Williams said. “Jessie (Hallberg), Lane (Gordon) and Evan (Farrell) all had personal-best rounds today. When the highest score you’re keeping is an 89, it equals up to a really good day.”

Starkville (323), Germantown (324) and Clinton (333) were between Madison Central and Warren Central. St. Aloysius finished sixth, at 358.

Brandon (365), Northwest Rankin (368), Florence (381) and Pearl (399) rounded out the team standings.

Individually, Madison Central’s George Tickner shot a 70 to take medalist honors against some stiff competition. Seven golfers broke 80, including St. Aloysius’ Will Keen and Warren Central’s Hartley Sullivan, and 28 of the 66 who teed off shot 89 or better.

Keen finished third after shooting 76, six shots behind Tickner and four back of runner-up Wesley Pippins of Germantown.
Sullivan shot 79 and was in a three-way tie for fifth place with Madison Central’s Tucker Gutierrez and Cole Flesher.

Williams said the other Warren Central golfers fed off of Sullivan’s great round. Farrell shot an 85, Gordon an 86, and Hallberg 89. Jackson Lafferty also broke 100, coming in 36th place with a 95. The top four scores for each school count toward their team total.

“Hartley played a great round, which we need for him to do,” Williams said. “When he’s able to shoot in the 70s and the rest of the team knows it, it gives them some extra motivation to play as good as they can. They don’t stress about their score as much and concentrate more on their shot, and they don’t think about a certain score they need to shoot.”

For St. Aloysius, Keen was near the top of the leaderboard and its next-best round came from Joshua Larsen. He shot 83 to tie for 14th place. Greyson Simmons shot 99 and Chase Tucker an even 100. Caleb Tucker and Thompson Fortenberry were another shot back at 101.

The tournament at Clear Creek kicked off a run of events scheduled for the next few weeks at Warren County’s two golf courses.

Warren Central and St. Aloysius will be among the teams competing in a girls’ tournament at Clear Creek on Monday, beginning at 9 a.m.

The girls’ and boys’ teams from both schools, as well as a number of others, will also play a tournament on April 12 at Vicksburg Country Club.