Golf Notes: Georgia Northwestern Technical College adds golf

photo Jared Willerson

Georgia Northwestern Technical College adds golf

Georgia Northwestern Technical College is adding golf for the 2013-14 season, and Jared Willerson from Gordon Lee High School will be the Bobcats' coach. Men's golf follows men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball as intercollegiate sports for the two-year school.

"The first year we will operate as a club sport as we prepare for our first official year in the NJCAA in 2014," said Willerson, who coached the Gordon Lee girls to a state championship in 2008 and a third-place state finish this past spring, while assisting on the boys' team that won the Class A public school title. He was a GHSA state coach of the year in '08.

Willerson, 37, plans to keep coaching at the high school in Chickamauga. He said he'll be signing his first college recruit soon, and the Bobcats will be in some invitational tournaments as early as this fall.

"He's a perfect fit for what we are going to accomplish, building what will be a competitive intercollegiate golf program," GNTC athletic director David Stephenson said.

Area aces

Marc Headrick of Lookout Mountain made his first hole-in-one Saturday at Stonebridge Golf Course in Rome, Ga. As witnessed by Jeff Vess, he used a 5-iron for the 175-yard shot on No. 8.

Amputee event

The Amputee Long Drive Championship benefiting the Jordan Thomas Foundation will start at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Tennessee National Golf Club at Loudon, and a Select Shot Scramble goes off at 9:30 Friday morning with 88 participants and the long drivers stationed at holes to meet them.

Thursday also will include entertainment beginning at 12:30 p.m. David Meador, a blind golf national champion and member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame, will give an inspirational message about overcoming challenges and also give a golf exhibition. He received the Ben Hogan Award at this year's Masters.

Also on hand will be arm amputee Brad Clayton, who runs PuzzleDuckGolf and has been the golf teacher of the year in both North Carolina and South Carolina. He has taught golf to many Wounded Warriors.

The long-drive event will have arm, multiple and age divisions.

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