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Sports Editor
Amory's golf team would love to think about winning its third straight state championship on its home course in two weeks.
Coach Bradley Parham, though, wants his guys to win Tuesday's Division 2-3A Tournament first.
Amory, Aberdeen, Houston, South Pontotoc, Nettleton and Houston will begin play at 9 a.m. Tuesday at River Birch Golf Club.
"I'm looking for (seniors) Barrett (Edens) and Dane (Christensen) to step up and lead like they've been doing all year and hopefully my young guys will follow their lead."
As long as it shoots the qualifying 375, Amory is automatically in the Class 3A state tournament, since the event is hosted on the Panthers' home course at River Birch.
"We don't want to take the automatic bid," Parham said. "We're wanting to play our way in."
Amory will play Edens at one and Chriustensen at two Tuesday. Mitchell Baxter, Wil Thompson and Ty Young will round out the lineup.
Thompson hasn't played in more than two weeks with an elbow injury, but Parham planned to measure his progress on Monday.
The state tournament will take place here May 7-8. The Panthers won the previous two here each of the last two seasons.
"We're still very inconsistent right now," Parham said. "Hopefully we'll get hot here at the right time."