Defending champions Hubert (Hook) Chaffold and Bob Cooper head the field for the 38th annual Firecracker 4-Ball to be held Saturday and Sunday at the Morehouse Country Club. Tee times are 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Chaffold and Cooper are aiming for a repeat after shooting a 127 to win last year’s event by three strokes over Kevin Bacle and Justin Lowe.
The highlight of last year’s tournament actually came in the second flight where Casey Coley and Charlie Laseter Jr. prevailed over Steve Moothart and James Blackwell. After a grueling nine-hole playoff decided nothing, the match was finally determined by a chipoff.
Cooper and Chaffold are seeking to become the tournament’s first repeat champions since Cooper and Scott Sills went back-to-back in 2000 and 2001. Cooper, a former national left-handed champion, is a seven-time Firecracker champ. He has also won the tournament with Terry Peddy (1980), Mike Creighton (1989) and Tom Bryant (1994, 1996).
Other teams to watch in this year’s tournament include Mike Sebren and Kelly Winnon, Phillip Lester and John Benson and Fayette Jordan and Steve Freeland.
Lester and Benson shot 133 to tie for third last year.
Jordan, a.k.a. “The Dragon,” won the MCC’s Bill Carpenter Memorial last month.
Tournament fixtures Don Sims and Van Lee, the 1977 champions, will compete in the senior division this year. This will mark Sims’ 59th time to play in the Firecracker, which began as an individual tournament. Since the 4-Ball format was adopted in 1972, Sims and Lee have teamed up every year save one.
Bastrop, La. —
