When the first South Carolina High School AAAAA golf poll came out Boiling Springs and Dorman held the top spots. Spartanburg wasn’t far behind.

Based on the first few tournaments of the year the poll reflected the results of those events.

Now that more tournaments have been played and the weather is starting to cooperate there is another team making some noise in the AAAAA ranks.

The Mauldin Mavericks served notice that they are a team that can be in the hunt for a state AAAAA championship.

The Mavericks won the Bud Asbury Greenville County High School championship played at Green Valley.

It wasn’t just that the Mavericks topped other teams ranked in the state wide poll, but it was how the Mavericks won.

They won by a lot, 10 shots. Four of the five Maverick golfers posted scores of 76 or better.

Mauldin shot a tournament best 287 total, a score that would have been good enough to win some of the other tournaments they have played this year.

The Greenville County tournament was the first time the team put everything together in the same event according to their coach.

“We have gotten good scores from Major Lenning or Jay Wilkins or some of our other players, but never at the same time in the same event,” said coach Cody Younce. 

That changed at Green Valley.

Lenning put a 6- under par 66 on the board to lead his team. He got the support he needed from another All-County golfer in Wilkins who finished at 2-under par 70.

Add in a 74 from Sam Norris a 76 from Ben Coggins and while it didn’t count Jackson Armbruster’s 83 was a promising score for a 7^th grader.

“This is the kind of golf we are capable of playing. It is the kind of golf that can give us some momentum in our region and then into the state playoffs. 

While some of the scores Maverick players posted were a little bit of surprise to Mauldin’s coach, Lenning’s 66 was not.

Just a sophomore, Lenning had a big South Carolina Junior Golf Association win in one of the association’s majors when he was the medalist at the Jimmy Self last summer.

He earned a few other top 10s to go along with a runner-up finish in The Blade Junior where only Christ Church’s William Jennings, the Carolinas Golf Association’s Junior champion, finished ahead of Lenning.

The two played in the same four-some and traded those positions in the County Championship with Lenning finishing 3 shots in front of Jennings for medalist honors.

“I had my putter working today,” said Lenning. “I hit a lot of greens, if I didn’t make some putts I lagged it up pretty close,” he said.

Jennings, who came within a shot of being the medalist at last weekends Georgia/South Carolina Cup matches finished in second place helping his Christ Church team to second behind Mauldin.

Wilkins and Tip Price from Greenville finished at 2-under par 70 and earned All-County honors along with St Joseph’s Henry Hall.

J.L. Mann shot a 308 total for third place with Eastside fourth at 311 and Greenville at 316 to round out the top-five.

Complete tournament scores