The SunTrust State Open Championship presented by Coca-Cola will run Tuesday through Thursday at Brentwood Country Club. Tennessee’s 63rd annual State Open golf tournament includes defending champion Grant Leaver, a former Austin Peay golfer who plays Nationwide Tour events, along with former Chattanooga-area high school and UTC golfers Bryce Ledford and Derek Rende, among other past champs. Rende won in 2007; Ledford won in 2009 and tied for third last year at GreyStone Golf Club.
• Lee University’s third-year women’s golf program received one of the nine at-large berths for the NAIA national tournament May 17-20 at Link Hills Country Club in Greeneville, Tenn. The at-large invitations were based on the final Top 25 poll released Thursday, and the Lady Flames join No. 1 Shorter University as the only representatives from the Southern States Athletic Conference. Tennessee Wesleyan also is in the 25-team tournament as the champion of the Appalachian Athletic Conference. “This has been a goal of our teams since the program was started,” Lee coach John Maupin said in a school release. “I am very proud of our players and everything they have accomplished this year.” The Cleveland school has had individual qualifiers before.
• Nine current or former Chattanooga-area residents are among the 140 golfers entered in an 18-hole U.S. Open local qualifier Monday at Atlanta’s Dunwoody Country Club. Honors Course head professional Henrik Simonsen of Ooltewah, Keith Mitchell and brothers Matthew and Mitchell Brock of Chattanooga and former Chattanoogan Adam Mitchell of Atlanta are in the field along with Rocky Face’s Michael Clark II, Dalton’s David Noll Jr., Ringgold’s Shawn Fisher and former LaFayette resident John Kimbell of San Antonio.
• McCallie School senior Patrick Clossin, the Tennessee Division II golf champion last fall, has committed to continue his career at Washington and Lee University. He carried a 72.1 stroke average for his final season of competition with the state champion Blue Tornado and was the Times Free Press player of the year.
Running