Home course knowledge can be an advantage, but you still have to play pretty well to win a team championship in the Upstate.

Tyler Macolly and Will Ferguson have a great deal of local knowledge playing their home course at Three Pines. The two golfers have both won club championships and Macolly was part of the winning team in last year’s Upstate Team championship.

The two teamed up to shoot a final round 11-under par 61 to win the Upstate event at their home course.

Macolly and Ferguson were in the middle of a tight leader board after the first round.

Their opening round 4-under par 68 left them two shots behind the two leading teams.

“We really didn’t get much out of the first round,” said Ferguson. “We had a couple of bogeys and in this kind of format you really can’t afford any,” he said.

Bobby Hines and Todd Hendley were tied with Cody Fry and Hunter White for the first round lead. The two teams made only one bogey in the first round as each team posted 6-under par 66s.

There were four other teams at 5-under par 67 for Macolly and Ferguson to pass to get to the lead.

“We thought if we were going to have a chance we had to do it on the front nine,” said Macolly. “It is a little easier,” he added.

The two club members used a 6-under par 30 on the front nine to climb into contention, but they were not the only team able to do some damage on the first nine.

Two other teams matched Macolly and Ferguson’s 30 on the front.

The team of Robbie Biershenk and Mike Hartin also shot a 6-under 30 and made the turn tied with Macolly and Ferguson at 10-under par.

The third team to turn in a 6-under par 30 on the front used it to take the lead.

Parker Derby and Ron Clontz held a 1-shot lead they kept until the 12th hole when Macolly and Ferguson made a birdie to tie the leaders.

The difference between the two teams was Macolly and Ferguson finished with a 5-under par 31 on the back, while the other teams, including Clontz and Derby didn’t make any birdies after the 13th hole.

“We didn’t know what was going on behind us, but we knew we needed to keep making birdies,” said Macolley.

After getting the lead with a birdie on the 14th hole the two added another birdie on the final hole to finish at 11-under par for the day and 15-under par for the tournament.

“In this Texas scramble format you always want to birdie the last hole, especially when there are groups still on the course,”said Ferguson.

The leaders posted their score and then had to wait to see if anyone could catch them, no team did.

Clontz and Derby finished in a tie with the teams of Bierhsenk and Hartin and Howard and McKinney for second place.

The win was Macolly’s second straight in the event, but this time he and his partner Ferguson were playing the tournament together for the first time.

“We know each other from the club and thought it would be fun to see if we could win and it was,” said Macolly.

Scores from the Upstate two-man team championship https://greenvillecga.bluegolf.com/bluegolfw/greenvillecga21/event/greenvillecga213/contest/17/leaderboard.htm.