Ainsley Moore and Laird Williams claim 2023 Tennessean Schooldays titles
Ainsley Moore won the girls title and Lairs Williams won the boys in the 98th playing and 99th year of The Tennessean/Metro Parks Schooldays at McCabe
Mike Organ, Nashville Tennessean
The Tennessean/Metro Parks Schooldays Golf Tournament has been around a long time, but there is plenty of new going on with this year’s event.
The 100th tournament and 99th playing of it will be played Wednesday-Friday at McCabe Course and for the first time will be part of the popular Sneds Tour, which is sponsored by PGA Tour golfer Brandt Snedeker. The only time the event hasn’t been held over the past 100 years was in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tournament begins with stroke play for boys and girls ages 12-18 on Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. The low 16 boys and eight girls advance to match play Thursday and Friday.
It is the only match-play tournament on the Sneds Tour.
BRANDT SNEDEKER ON THE SCHOOLDAYS: What Brandt Snedeker said about the Schooldays Golf Tournament joining the Sneds Tour
Brandt Snedeker played in the Schooldays
The Schooldays was one of Brandt Snedeker’s favorite tournaments when he was a youth golfer growing up in Nashville. The former Montgomery Bell Academy star played in the Schooldays five times, every year he was eligible.
He advanced to match play three times and to the semifinals as a senior where he lost to eventual 1996 champion Whit Turnbow, who is now president of the Tennessee Golf Foundation. Snedeker’s older brother Haymes, who played golf at Franklin Road Academy, also played in the Schooldays.
Big-time golfers played in the Schooldays
Brandt Snedeker isn’t the only former participant who went on to have an outstanding career in golf.
Other former Schooldays participants on the boys players include Lou Graham, who won the 1975 U.S. Open and tied for sixth in the Masters, Richard Eller, who also played on the PGA Tour and is in the Memphis State Sports Hall of Fame, Richard’s brother Mike Elller, owner of Hermitage Golf Course, Harry Taylor, who helped launch TaylorMade Golf after playing on the PGA Tour, Don Sargent Jr., who has been among the nation’s top golf instructors for many years, Lipscomb University golf coach Will Brewer and former Tennessean sports writer and columnist David Climer.
Audie Johnson, who won the 1979 Schooldays and finished runner-up the following year to Sargent, is now the pro at McCabe Golf Course and serves as a co-director of the tournament.
Former girls players include Sarah Jacobs, who went on to play at Vanderbilt and made the All-SEC team, Alexandra Farnsworth, who also played at Vanderbilt, and Ashley Gilliam, who was an All-American and All-SEC golfer at Mississippi State and was the Tennessee Golf Association Women’s Golfer of the Year in 2018.
Why the name was changed from Schoolboy
For more than 60 years the tournament was known as the Schoolboy. In 1983 girls were added to the field and the name was changed to Schooldays.
The first year girls were added only three signed up. One of the girls had to recruit a friend to join the field so they could play match play.
Christi Parkes from Lawrenceburg won the inaugural girls tournament and repeated as the champ the following year.
What about the crystal trophies?
The crystal trophies for the boys and girls champions and runners-up were added when Snedeker and Turnbow, on behalf of the Tennessee Golf Foundation, provided a gift to the tournament in 2022. Several other upgrades were made as well.
The age limit is still 12 for the younger players but increased from 17 to 18 when the tournament joined the Sneds Tour.
Admission for the tournament remained free even after it was added to the Sneds Tour. Players will receive Sneds Tour points for playing in the tournament.
For Wednesday’s tee times visit bit.ly/4aHmQUw.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.