On Monday many teams in South Carolina took the next step towards winning a state championship.

The top teams in each classification are on the way to the Upper and Lower state qualifying tournaments next Monday or Tuesday.

While all the highly ranked teams have advanced to the qualifying tournaments, there were a few surprises.

Region wins by Gaffney Travelers Rest and Powdersville could be considered mild surprises, while some of the top teams in the state saw their winning margins in Regional competition shrink a little from last year.

The top teams know they will make it to the state championships beginning on May 19th, other teams use the Regionals as a way to win their way into the Upper and Lower state qualifiers to keep playing this year.

Gaffney won the Region II 5A championship at the Cherokee National Golf Club in Gaffney. The Region championship follows a season of improvement for the Indians.

Gaffney held off Spartanburg and Dorman to win the title by 2-shots and established the Indians as a contender in the loaded 5A Division II classification.

“We have gotten better as the year has gone on,” said Daniel Price. “We have grown up and matured. We are playing smarter golf now and I feel like we can contend with the top teams,” he said.

Price was the top Gaffney golfer finishing as the runner-up, 3-shots behind Spartanburg’s Davis Petty and 2-shots in front of the defending 5A champion Will Ruth from Dorman.

The leaderboard at the Region tournament was packed. Usually the All-Tournament team includes six golfers, but there were so many ties at the top the All-Region team this year included 11 golfers.

After Gaffney, Spartanburg and Dorman, the Riverside Warriors finished fourth and will continue the season next week.

Gaffney next plays in the Upper State 5A DII qualifying tournament at Brookstone Meadows in Anderson. The field for the Upstate qualifying tournament appears to be the strongest Division and Classification in the state.

Hanna is a two time defending state champion and the Yellow Jackets won their Regional championship at Willow Creek by 3-shots over Greenville and Greenwood.

Yellow Jacket junior Cal Harbin was the Region medalist shooting a near perfect 5-under par 67.

Harbin had three front side birdies and closed out his round with two more on numbers 17 and 18 to finish without a bogey on his card.

The 5-under par round earned the Yellow Jacket Junior a 2-shot victory over Greenville’s Tip Price, Greenwood’s Keegan Farmer and Mauldin’s Alec Franklin.

At the Links O’Tryon Travelers Rest topped Blue Ridge by two shots for the 4A Region II championship.

Dawson Szabo followed up his win at the Southern Cross with medalist honors at the Regional. Szabo shot a 3-under par 69 to edge out Daniels’ Miles Vischer for the Region individual title.

For scores and results from most Regional tournaments in the state the South Carolina High School Golf Coaches have produced an ap to follow live scoring, when available.

The ap, when used at tournaments allows South Carolina High School golf fans the same opportunity to follow the action as they do with college aps like GolfStat and Clipped.

In the ap store find SCHS Golf. The ap is available for Ipad and Iphone.

Here is a listing of the Upper and Lower State qualifiers and the sites and dates for the next round of State Championship play.

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