JOURNAL SPORTS
BATON ROUGE – Last year, Shreveport native and Byrd High alumnus Jake Marler followed a solid opening round at the Louisiana State Amateur with 54 holes of under-par golf to win the 104th edition of the State Am at Southern Trace Country Club.
Thursday, the UL-Lafayette golfer started the same way, with a 1-under 71 at the Country Club of Louisiana and was tied for 12th after 141 players completed the first round on the 6,933-yard track in south Baton Rouge.
Four south Louisiana players shared the first-round lead at 4-under: Baton Rouge residents Ryan Dupuy and Walter Anderson, Michael Ferrer of Covington and Miles Merlin from Metairie.
Benton’s Noah McWilliams posted the best score among 14 local qualifiers, starting the second round tied for ninth after carding a 2-under 70 on Thursday. He and Marler were among only 17 competitors under par Thursday with just eight under 70. The average score was 76.9.
McWIlliams’ father, Robby, is tied for 23rd after carding a 1-over 73 Thursday. Shreveport’s Charlie Bell is 35th at 2-over, tied with several players including former NFL quarterback and ex-Shreveport resident Billy Joe Toliver, now living in Saint Gabriel.
Other local golfers include Carter Jurkovich, Bossier City, and Peyton Johnson, Shreveport, tied for 46th, 3-over 75; Connor Cassano, Shreveport, tied for 61st, 4-over 76; Chance Snell, Shreveport, and Ryan King, Bossier City, T69, 5-over 77;
More locals: Jack Gilmer, Bossier City, T82, 6-over 78; Miller Davis, Bossier City, T101, 8-over 80 (tied with former LSU and NFL quarterback and Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame member Tommy Hodson); Brooks Reid, Shreveport, T112, 81; Jordan McCart, Shreveport, T119, 82; Jack Lauve, Shreveport, T123, 83.
The LGAgolf.org website will provide live scoring coverage of the 72-hole tournament concluding Sunday. The field will be cut to the low 60 scores after today’s second round.