The South Carolina High School Golf Coaches have released their preseason rankings for the upcoming high school season.

The schools at the top of each of the four classifications are no strangers to a high preseason ranking or the ability to carry that ranking through the year to a championship.

Boiling Springs and Christ Church were able to do just that last year.

The Bulldogs started the year as the top ranked AAAAA team and finished as the state champions. Last year’s Bulldogs won 10 tournaments on their way to the school’s fifth state championship since 2014.

The Bulldogs graduated last year’s AAAAA individual champion Zach Phillips, but Andrew Gregory returns after finishing seventh in the state championship and picked up a win in the CGA Hope Valley Junior this past summer to lead the team this year.

Christ Church also went wire to wire in the AA Classification to win the schools nineteenth state title.

This year the Cavaliers return four of their five starters including future Gamecock Walker Jennings and his younger brother William, who is the defending Class AA individual champion.

Flora won the AAAA championship for its 15th state title, but the competition in Class AAAA appears to be stronger this year with the continued improvement of a young Greenville team.

Red Raider Hugh Faulkner, a two-time Greenville County Junior Champion, and Tip Price who won an AJGA championship last summer, are both ranked in the top-10 of the SCJGA points standings.

The Red Raiders finished fourth last year , but the coaches poll has noted the teams maturation and are expected to be a strong challenger to the Falcons.

Southside Christian is ranked second to Christ Church in the combined Class AA & A poll, but they will be defending the Class A title they won for the first time last year.

Woodruff rounded out the Upstate dominance in high school golf when they won the Class AAA title on their home course at Three Pines.

Bishop England, last year’s runner-up, is favored by the poll, but even after graduating Daniel Brasington, the AAA individual champion, the coaches poll recognizes the Wolverines have enough quality players to make a run at another title.

High School teams are practicing and scrimmaging now. The first matches of the season will begin on February 28th at Greenville Country Club in the Red Raider Invitational with The Rebel at River Falls following on March 7th.

The two early season tournaments could give an indication as to how close the coaches poll is to the strength of the teams picked to be the top contenders for state titles in May.