Nine teams duked it out on the fairways in honor of a longtime Troy University contributor during the Butler County Troy Alumni Jimmy Gardner Memorial Golf Tournament.

The four-man scramble tournament kicked off Thursday at 1 p.m., just on the heels of the 2017 Trojan Tour event at Cambrian Ridge.

Abbie Gardner Ballew, head of the Butler County Troy Alumni Association, said that Thursday’s event was a great one despite a slightly lower golfer turnout than normal.

“I think it was a good year,” she said. “I think we can always grow—I don’t like to ever think that we have enough, or that we did enough.

“I’d like to see more fans on the Trojan Tour.  We had a great turnout, but a lot of those were also golfers.  But Troy University was very pleased with the tournament.”

One group emerged from the rest as the first-place team, whose members were Tim Bryan, Tuffy Rainey, Marcus Grant and Bart Barnes.

The second-place team was composed of David Hancock, Sam Starr, Mike Dodds and Fatima Cano.

The team of Ryan Williams, Ben Martin, Jason Boothe and Marty Hanks rounded out the top three at the third-place spot.

Those three teams weren’t the only winners Thursday, however.  The Butler County Troy Alumni Association also awarded scholarships to students at all four schools within the county. 

The scholarship recipients were Jennifer Grace Arnold from Fort Dale Academy, Jordan Lewis from Greenville High School, Caitlin Wingard from McKenzie School and Carrie Boswell from Georgiana School.

Ballew said that the tournament, much like Troy University itself, is on a steady climb year after year.

“I think we are only going to continue to grow,” she said. “Troy is growing, and with that the alumni base is going to grow.  The excitement for all things Troy just continues to grow.

“And I had somebody who was at the golf tournament, actually, who did not go to Troy and he just played in the golf tournament. And he said that it was really remarkable how close of a family that the Troy family is.  We really do get together and we are very supportive of our school, and we really are.

“So we’re excited.  We’re looking forward to doing some events next year that we didn’t get to this year. We have a couple of football games during the week, and we’re looking to have a watch party so that we can watch the game as an alumni association.  I don’t know where yet—we’ve done it once at the country club and once at the pavilion, so we’re looking to do something again with that this year.”

For those interested in upcoming Butler County Troy Alumni Association events, email Ballew at abbie@agentabbie.com.