FULTON - Ally McDonald, Chad Ramey, Clay Homan and Ken Hogue are four of the state's best golfers and they have the hardware to prove it.

McDonald is the reigning women's state amateur champion. This past spring the Mississippi State signee capped her high school career by winning state medalist honors against an all-boys field.

Ramey, a sophomore-to-be on MSU's golf team, has won back-to-back state junior open championships. He also won three state medalist titles in high school.

Homan, MSU's golf coach and former professional golfer, recently won the state amateur for the third time. He's also the state's defending mid amateur champion.

Hogue won the state's super senior 4-ball championship in 2010. He's won seven state-sanctioned competitions and finished second in 11 others since 1994.

Along with winning, they all have one other thing in common - they're all from Itawamba County and they all call the Fulton Country Club's nine-hole course home.

"It's kind of weird that all of us come from a little nine-hole course in Fulton," said Ramey, who last week won the 64th Greenwood Invitational, one of the state's top stroke-play events. "I don't have a clue why.

"Maybe it's got something to do with the course, how it makes you play."

The hilly 2,648-yard course opened for business in 1967 without a teaching golf professional on staff and without a driving range. The course has neither today.

"That's what I think is unique," Homan said. "A lot of us basically taught ourselves how to play. You see a lot of homemade swings out here.

"When you practice out here, you're playing," he added, then laughed. "Call it 'on-the-course' training."

Hogue and teammates Ricky Riley, F.G. Wiygul, Tim Wiygul and Phil Morris credit their on-the-course training with their 1997 Bryan Cup victory against many of the state's larger club teams. An FCC entry has also finished second four times in the Bryan Cup competition.

"Our little course may not be long but it has a lot of different and unusual lies," said Hogue, who's a 14-time FCC champion.

Riley, a five-time club champion, adds: "If you play here you have to hit all types of lies and shots. Members feel that the difficulty of the course gives them an advantage in competition."

McDonald, an MSU signee, has been playing the course since she was 10.

"It gives you a bunch of different scenarios you can get into on a course," she said. "It gives you a little bit of everything. It prepares you for the different courses you play in competition.

"This course has challenged me a lot."

Tupelo Country Club pro Jim Rose said believes the course's small, sloping greens - many bordered by the woods and deep dropoffs - give the FCC golfers constant training in the most difficult part of the game - the short game.

"It teaches you how to score," he said. "You've got to be able to play from 50 yards in. You have to learn to hit pitches and chips."

The TCC now has plans to build a short game area on its driving range.

"It will be great for our members and junior program," Rose said. "It's all about scoring. That's where we're seeing a lot of weaknesses - in pitching and chipping."

The Fulton Country Club is also the home course for former national long-driving champion Andy Franks, four-time club champion and former state 4-ball champion Jerry Stubblefield and the four-time state champion (three boys, one girls) Itawamba Agricultural High School golf teams.

On the women's side, the late Frankie Brock was a nine-time club champion while Teresa McNeese has won 13 club titles.

Growing up with golf

Homan grew up on the FCC links, golfing and fishing.

"I got my first real set of junior clubs when I was 10," he said. "I'd be out here all day long in the summer. I'd play nine holes, swim, then play nine more holes.

"When I was 12, I broke my leg and couldn't play. There's a lake out by No. 8, so I went there every day to fish. That's how much I loved being out here.

"I can't tell you how many miles are on my dad's golf cart ... 20,000 I bet."

Ramey, whose father, Stanley, is the course manager, knows the nine holes better than most. He, along with Hogue, own the two lowest scores recorded - 11-under. Ramey's was a 59 on a par 70 round. Hogue's was a 61 on a par 72 round.

"I have a lot of memories out here, but I guess my biggest was when I beat my dad for the first time," Ramey said.

McDonald's highlights from playing on the FCC course include driving the green on the 230-yard (women's tee) No. 2 hole, two double eagles and shooting a 32 from the men's tees.

"Chad and I try to get in holes a day when we can," she said.

Nobody's sure why the Fulton golfers have had so much success over the years.

"I really can't tell why we've all had so much success," Hogue said. "I know this, we've always had a very competitive bunch here."

"We've just got a lot of good competition," Riley added. "We had a member a few years ago, Kevin Cowart, who made two holes-in-one in one round."

Maybe it's fate, McDonald hinted.

"This is a small town and a small golf course," she said. "God put us all here and it has worked out."

gene.phelps@journalinc.com