Gusting winds, reaching above 30 miles per hour at theBrookhaven Country Club Monday afternoon, blew away the hopes ofmany teams chasing the Class 4A State Golf Tournament title. Someindividuals, led by par-70 golfer Amanda Mathis of Picayune, wereable to cope with the windy conditions.

Mathis and her Picayune teammates were tied with defending statechampion West Jones after yesterday’s opening round at 313. Closebehind were Terry and Alcorn Central, deadlocked at 317.

“It was an interesting day,” said Mathis, a blonde senior andone of two females in the tournament. “The wind was brutal. It feltlike a hurricane coming through.

“I spent a lot of time scrambling for pars,” said Mathis. “I wasmaking six and 10 footers for par.” She was using a White HotOdyssey 2-Ball putter.

Mathis, a Mississippi State scholarship signee, said theBrookhaven Country Club course was in good shape. “It wasbeautiful. The rest of my team liked it a lot.”

Mathis teed off from several of the member tees and a few of theladies’ tees.

Picayune was runner-up to West Jones in last year’s tournament.The Mustangs won by one stroke.

“It should be another battle today,” predicted Picayune coachDennis Peterson. “Are seniors are hungry. We lost by one shot lastyear.”

Four of the five Picayune golfers are seniors. David Bellfollowed Mathis with a 77, Jordan Stogner shot 79, Terry Jordan 87and Justin Stockstill 88.

West Jones was led by David Hagan at 74 and Brandon Payne at76.

Dale Murphy Sykes of Lawrence County and Nick Beale of PassChristian both shot 71, one stroke behind Mathis for medalisthonors. Sykes, a senior, had posted a 71 at the BCC earlier in theseason.

“That’s the most I’ve seen the wind blow all day,” said Sykes.”Most of the time it was blowing sideways and then sometimes in ourface.”

The wind blew steadily in the teens and some gusts were near 35miles per hour.

Sykes said the course demanded strong, accurate shots. “We hadseveral holes from the back tees and the pins were tucked prettytight, too.”

Sykes said he had to scramble for a 71. “I only hit one fairwayand seven greens. I birdied four of the seven greens I hit.”

Brookhaven, the host team, posted a 331 yesterday, 18 strokesbehind the two leaders. The Panthers were led by Brandt Hinton’s79. Phillip Hammond shot 80, Austin Mills 85, Shane Price 87 andCody Jordan 88.

Sixteen teams started yesterday’s tournament but only 15finished. Florence withdrew after a few holes.

Class 2A: The Class 2A State Golf Tournamentstarted today at the Wolf Hollow Golf Club on the Copiah-LincolnCommunity College campus. Loyd Star, coached by Ricky Myers, is thedefending champion in the 8-team field.