Salisbury golf, state champs

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

PINEHURST — Golf is fun, but Monday felt a whole lot like work for Salisbury’s boys golf team.

The Hornets were on the course at 7:15 a.m. to begin play in the two-day, 36-hole 2A State Championships held on Pinehurst No. 6. They exited at 4 p.m., nearly nine hours later, drained physically and emotionally, sitting in third place, looking at a deficit of seven shots, and feeling somewhat frustrated with their swings as well as the mood swings of brutally surly weather.

But Tuesday made all of Monday’s soggy drama worthwhile. The Hornets rallied twice and pulled it out by the skinniest of margins, winning the state title by a single shot over Pine Lake Prep and by two strokes over Seaforth. For the record, it was 627, 628 and 629.

Hornets posed with mile-wide grins next to a banner commemorating the program’s first NCHSAA state title since the back-to-back championships of 2011 and 2012.

They may have been 59 over par, but they were over the moon with joy and pride.

John McCoy’s par putt on 18 officially sealed it. Unofficially, Sam Goodman’s long-shot par on 18, made the difference. Goodman provided the 9-iron shot that his coach and teammates will remember 30 years from now.

“Thirteen years is a long time for Salisbury golf to wait for a championship,” said coach Josh Brincefield, who played for Salisbury’s 1990s dynasty that produced consecutive state titles in 1993, 1994 and 1995 under coach Sam Gealy. “Monday was just a crazy, long, long day for everyone, but as badly as things went for us, as much adversity as we went through, we knew we were still in it. We’ve talked about having a special group of golfers, a special group of guys, for three years now, and our guys still believed that they could do it. On Tuesday, they went out and did it. That was beautiful to see.”

Some of the surnames of the Hornets’ current lineup are the same as the ones from the mid-1990s — names like McCoy, Goodman and Brincefield. Golf is a family game, a generational game. Coach Brincefield got to watch his son, Bo, help win a state championship. That’s storybook stuff that doesn’t happen all that often.

The wicked weather provided a lot of the story on Monday. The show went on, even when it probably shouldn’t have.

“Everyone had to deal with the same conditions, but conditions made the course unplayable for a lot of the day,” Brincefield said. “When we started, there was almost no rain, but as the day went on, the rain picked up, and there was more and more of it. The course flooded, standing water in the fairways and on the greens. I was expecting them to stop play, but they kept pushing, and I understand that. It’s the state championship. Players, coaches and families have come from all over the state to be there. Finally, around 10:30 a.m. they called a halt. Then we sat through a two-hour delay. They they called us back out there. Conditions hadn’t improved very much, but we were able to finish. Scores were high, but that was understandable.”

McCoy’s 4-over 76 led the Hornets on the first day. Goodman shot 78. Bo Brincefield shot 83, and Warren Fesperman shot 86 for a 323 total. Jackson Sparger, the Hornets’ No. 2 seed and a guy who normally shoots in the 70s, had a bad day. The five-sport athlete shot 92. That wasn’t as disastrous as it sounds because only the top four scores count.

“So we were seven shots behind Pine Lake Prep and two behind Bandys,” Coach Brincefield said. “That was with Sparger having a very rough day. They re-seed everyone for the second day, so Sparger was our No. 5 seed for the second round. That meant he was going to be the first one on the course and we knew he would be a better player than the guys in his group. I told Sparger he could make up those seven shots for us in just a few holes. He got off to a great start, and he helped us get right back in it.”

All the Hornets started strong. All of them turned in solid front nines. Salisbury caught up. Then the Hornets took the lead.

“Then we started to level off and backed up some, and Pine Lake Prep and Seaforth started playing better,” Coach Brincefield said. “We fell behind again by five shots. Then we had to make another comeback.”

With three holes to play, the Hornets held a one-shot lead.

A crowd gathered at No. 18 to watch the three-team race swirl toward the finish line. One great shot or one errant shot was going to decide everything.

Goodman made that shot.

Goodman’s tee shot found one of the numerous traps on the course. He was 160 yards out, but he hammered a 9-iron out of the sand and safely onto the green. Then he calmly two-putted for par.

“One of the best high school pars I’ve seen in a long time,” Coach Brincefield said. “All our guys fight the confidence battle at  times, and Sam may fight it the most. I have to keep reminding him that he’s a really good player and that he’s really good, not by accident, but because he has worked so hard for it. He came through for his teammates and for himself.”

McCoy was the last Hornet on the course. His second shot on the par-4 18th left him in a challenging situation, on the front edge of the green, but about 50 feet from the pin, and in danger of a three-putt.

But McCoy also did what he had to do. He put that long putt close to the hole.

Birdie attempts from opponents failed, one of them by inches. McCoy rolled in his par, and the Hornets were champions.

On Day 2, the Hornets improved by 18 shots from 323 to 305. It was just enough.

“You’re going to have a bad hole now and then, you’re going to hit a drive out of bounds, you’re going to miss a shot putt,” Coach Brincefield said. “It’s golf. It happens. But you can’t let a round go sideways because of one bad shot. The guys stayed focused with the pressure on. They kept plugging away.”

McCoy shot 74 in the second round, and Goodman was even better — 1-over 72. They tied for sixth on the individual leaderboard at 8-over 150. Fesperman improved from 86 to 78 in a pressurized environment where every shot mattered. Bo Brincefield sacrificed some driving distance for accuracy and improved to 80 on Day 2. Sparger cooled off after his hot start, but still shot a respectable 80.

West Wilkes sophomore Slater Meade shot 70-66 — 136 to take the individual championship. East Surry junior Pennson Badgett was second at 71-71 — 142.

Jacob Trainor, a prominent Hornet player who was all-county and all-conference, didn’t play in the state tournament, but received one of the two sportsmanship awards.

Trainor, Brincefield, Sparger and Fesperman are seniors, so there will be some serious rebuilding to do in 2026. McCoy and Goodman will be back to lead the next team.

The championship was the seventh for the program. The Hornets won in 1998 in addition to the 1993-1995 3-peat and the back-to-backs of 2011-12.

“So much of golf is mental,” Coach Brincefield said. “Just being tough mentally and believing in yourself is so critical. These guys believed from start to finish. Now they can say they’re state champions.”