The 35th Rotary Club of Buckhead Tennis Tournament, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the state, will be played Friday and Saturday.
Twelve boys and girls high school teams are divided into two divisions with each team playing one match on Friday and three round-robin matches on Saturday. Last year’s tournament was rained out, so there are no defending champions.
Boys teams in the field are (Division A) Westminster, Roswell, Chattahoochee, St. Pius, Johns Creek, Norcross; (Division B) Pace Academy, McIntosh, Athens Academy, Lovett, Harrison and Christ Episcopal (S.C.).
Girls teams in the field are (Division A) Westminster, Chattahoochee, Johns Creek, McIntosh, Lovett, Baylor (Tenn.); (Division B) St. Pius, Pace Academy, Woodward Academy, Norcross, Athens Academy and Girls Prep (Tenn.).
Matches will be played at Westminster, Lovett, and the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center.
“It is a pretty big tournament,” Westminster coach Wade Boggs. “There are some of the best teams from Georgia and the surrounding states. It comes late in the season and it’s a nice tuneup for the region tournament.”
Elite field at Athletic Club: Defending champion Brookstone leads an elite field of 18 of the top boys teams in the state at the High School Invitational hosted by the Atlanta Athletic Club on Monday. It's a rare opportunity for teams to compete on the club's Highland Course, which has hosted three PGA Championships, a U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur.
Brookstone, Marist and Westminster all won state championships last year. The remaining teams are among the best in the state: Harrison, Colquitt County, Lambert, Kell, Johns Creek, Gainesville, Holy Innocents’, Woodward Academy, North Atlanta, Greater Atlanta Christian, Lovett, Wesleyan, Athens Academy and South Carolina powers Wilson Hall and Bishop England.
There is no team division for girls, but there is an individual competition for an elite group on the club’s Riverside Course, which hosted the U.S. Women’s Open and was used during the 2014 U.S. Amateur.
The girls field is headlined by Bailey Tardy of Norcross, a Georgia signee who is the club champion at the Athletic Club. Other top players include: Rachel Dai of Cambridge, who has signed with Penn; Anna Buchanan of Athens Academy, who has signed with Samford; and Kayley Marschke of Lambert, a junior who has committed to Auburn.
Around the links: Ryan Joiner of Blessed Trinity and Norcross' Tardy won the West Hall Invitational at Chateau Elan. Joiner shot a 72, one shot better than West Forsyth's Robert Shaw and Phillip Westbury of Brookwood. Brookwood won the team title at 309. Tardy shot a 72 and beat runner-up Rylie Marchman of Burke County by five strokes. Colquitt County won the team title. … Etowah's Melanie Talbott shot a 70 to take medalist honors at the Lady Cat Invitational in Dalton, but the host Catamounts came away with the team title. … Alex Markham of Mill Creek was medalist at the Big Red Shootout, out-dueling Gainesville's Spencer Ralston at the Chattahoochee Golf Club and helping the Hawks win the team championship.
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