The race for high school golf championships in the Palmetto State has some favorites, but after the first few weeks of the season more contenders are showing they intend to be in the hunt.

Two big tournaments on Tuesday showed a very deep field in the race for the 5A DII title.

Hanna’s march to a third straight 5A DII state championship looks on track after a workman like win in the tournament they hosted at Brookstone Meadows.

Greenwood opened the season as the second ranked team in the coaches poll. The Eagles have solidified their place as a top contender for Hanna’s crown with a win in the 36-hole Battle of the Dam at Golden Hills.

Add in a Greenville team that notched a win at The Rebel Invitational and the top three teams in the ranking are playing like the top three teams.

Hanna topped Dorman at the Yellow Jacket tournament by four-shots.

The consistency of the five starters for Hanna has been consistent. Over the past two years the lineup of Bennett Scaletta, Erik Erlenkeuser, Caden Olsommer, Will Corbin and Landon Smith have won a lot of tournaments.

In Lexington, at Golden Hills, Greenwood held the first round lead in The Battle at the Dam with Bryant McCurry turning in a 3-under par 69.

In the second round Cameron Addis shaved two shots off his first round score of 73 to help the Eagles wrap up the win over the host team from River Bluff. Adam Knox, Keegan Farmer and Jaelen Fisher rounded out the winning Greenwood team.

AC Flora’s Henry Cauthen was the medalist finishing at 3-under par while McCurry tied for second with Howard Vroon from River Bluff. Addis gave the Eagles a second golfer in the top-ten with his 8th place finish.

Dorman’s second place finish at the Yellow Jacket Invitational was due in no small part to the play of Moses Zikusooka. The 8th grade golfer held the individual lead for a time, but missed a chance to be in the playoff with a late round bogey to finish third at 2-under par.

The individual title at the Yellow Jacket invitational was decided in a playoff.

Jace Danbom from Easley and Dylan Park from Wren finished their round tied at 4-under par.

While Danbom’s scorecard looked normal, Park’s back nine card documented the roller coaster ride he took to make the playoff.

His five hole stretch of birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie kept the Hurricane golfer close to the lead and allowed him to tie Danbom at 4 under par when he birdied the 18th hole.

“I was kind of all over the place for awhile. Seven birdies and three bogeys, but at the end of the day the 68 was a pretty good scores,” said Park.

Park and Danbom tied on the first playoff hole, but the Wren golfer won the playoff with a par on the second extra hole.

“I’ve had a couple of T-ones (tied for first place), but we didn’t play them out so this was the first time I’ve been able to win a playoff,” said Park. “Its nice to get a win all to myself, he said.

Wren cannot defend the 3A championship the Hurricanes won last year because they were bumped up a classification and are playing in 4A this year.

The Wren team finished third with Park and Garrett Gillespie making the All-Tournament team along with Danbom, Zikusooka and Erlenkeuser.

Many of the top teams in South Carolina will square off with the top high school teams from Georgia on Friday and Saturday at the Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg.

The annual Georgia – South Carolina matches will include the Hanna team and Park playing as an individual.

The tournament is open to the public.