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The busiest time of the year is here for the LaGrange golf program as the season barrels towards a climax. Over the next week, the Grangers will host the annual Granger Classic as well as the Area 1-3A boys and girls tournaments.

It all starts on Thursday as day one of the 3-day Granger Classic commences at Callaway Gardens. 

The tournament will continue into Friday, where a change of venue will see the teams take on Highlands Country Club. 

“We moved Friday from Callaway Gardens to Highlands this year because a lot of the teams really wanted to have an opportunity to play at Highlands,” LaGrange head golf coach Ben Thrasher said. 

The eight teams with the lowest combined score for Thursday and Friday will play at Highlands Country Club again on Saturday.

As per usual, the annual tournament will be chock-full of high-quality programs.

“Northgate has won the tournament twice, John’s Creek is coming back and they won the tournament the first year we hosted,” Thrasher said. “We have a lot of the same teams as years past and then we have some new ones like Colquitt County, Druid Hills and North Hall. There is a good little mix of teams that have been here before and ones that are new.”

Despite being in a loaded field, the expectations for the Grangers are to make it to Saturday.

“The goal in this tournament for us is always to make it to Saturday,” Thrasher said. “We’ve only made it once out of the last three years and this year is going to be just as tough.”

LaGrange High will then turn around quickly as the golf program sets its sights on hosting the boys and girls area tournaments. Both tournaments are scheduled to take place at Callaway Gardens with the girls taking to the Lake View Course on Wednesday and the boys heading to the Mountain View Course on  Thursday, the 24th. 

The LaGrange girls have been on a steady climb the last several years. The Grangers finished third in the area two years ago, narrowly making the state tournament. The team would improve on that finish and finish as runner-up last year. With two seniors (Sydnee Jennings and Hudson Wood)  and a junior (Caroline Brown) entrenched in the lineup and juniors Shelby Siggers and Katie Hale along with senior Zoe Thompson are battling it out for the final starting slot at area, the Grangers have the experience to potentially break through and win an area championship. 

“They have beaten all the Area teams they have played this season head-to-head, but it’s not a given by any means,” Trasher said. “ Caroline has been playing better than any girl we have had since at least Sydney Ormsby was here playing.”

Scoring for the girls tournament is different this season compared to last. The Grangers were in the 4A classification last season, where five golfers took the course for area with the top four scores counting. LaGrange dropped down to 3A this season and will have four golfers in the starting lineup with the lowest two scores combining for the team’s overall score. 

The boys will be looking to repeat as area champions. The team won last season against a tough area that included Starr’s Mill.

Thrasher expects his team to perform next week despite an occasional stumble throughout the season. 

“We played Mary Persons one time this year in another tournament and they beat us by seven shots. Now, we played very poorly that day, but it shows the guys that they can’t be overconfident coming into the tournament,” Thrasher said. “You never want your team to play poorly, but I think that was good for us. If we were to beat them by 10+ strokes or something, we’d probably head into area overconfident.”

The boys will follow the same format as last season, five Grangers on the course with the lowest four scores contributing to the overall team score.