Six players who were members of McNeese State’s three-time Southland Conference golf championship teams in the late 1970s (’77-’78-’79) were in town last week, renewing friendships and playing a little golf.
Hubert Boales, who was coach of the team for two of those title years, got a good look at the six while they played rounds at Mallard Cove and at the Lake Charles Country Club.
“All of them can still hit the ball pretty good,” said Boales of Tim Graham, Mac Blanchard, Larry Marshall, Billy Trent, Bill Smith and James Leitz. “And, they all looked to be in pretty good shape.”
Graham, who played one year on the PGA Tour after leaving McNeese, was the leader of the group on the scoreboard with a best round of 68 while Blanchard had a top score of 73 and Marshall a 75.
“Tim kinda threw this together at the last minute,” Blanchard said of the homecoming. “He brought his son to Texas for graduate school and decided to come on over. Some could only come for a day, but the only one we couldn’t get was Scott Smith, who lives in Shreveport.”
Five of the six who gathered went into the golf profession after they graduated. Marshall was the one who didn’t.
Graham played the tour for that one year, then moved to California and regained his amateur standing. He is now a private equity investor in Indian Wells.
Blanchard was a golf pro for 25 years beginning at the Jennings Country Club and is now the maintenance supervisor for Ward 3 in Lake Charles. Trent was a pro at Toro Hills and Alpine golf course and is now a real estate appraiser in Pineville. Smith was a golf superintendent for 25 years and is now retired and living on a golf course in Houma, and Leitz is the head pro at Tchefuncta Country Club in Covington and is regarded as one of the nation’s top golf instructors and club fitters.
Marshal took the business route. He was a pilot for several years and is now a salesman for Hughes Tools, living in the Woodlands, Texas.
“Everyone looked the same, although a little older,” Blanchard said. “This was kind off a thrown together get-together but it was a good one. We all said that beginning next year it will become an every year thing and we will plan it a little better.”
During that three-year championship run, Graham won three individual titles. Boales was the league coach of the year twice and the 1977 crew played in the NCAA tournament.
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Robby Going, who was a McNeese golfer in the late 1990s, qualified to play in the USGA national mid-amateur tournament in Elverson, Pennsylvania, Sept. 10-15.
The tournament involves stroke play and then match play at Stonewall Links.
Going is a two-time Lake Charles city champion (2012, ’08) and was the Cowboys’ leading scorer in 1997 and 2000.
He qualified for the national tournament by shooting a 68 (top score) in a qualifier at Southern Trace earlier in the month.
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Andy McElveen recently recorded his sixth hole-in-one. He knocked in a 7-hybrid from 143 yards on No. 16 at the Lake Charles Country Club.
Upcoming
Saturday — McNeese Cowboy fundraiser two-man scramble, Gray Plantation.
Sept. 24-25 — Louisiana senior four ball, Lake Charles Country Club.
Sept.
23 — Southwest Louisiana Law Center scramble, Gray Plantation.
Sept.
30 — McNeese Petrochem scramble, Mallard Cove.
Oct. 7 — Bishop’s Golf Classic, The National (Westlake).
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Louis Bonnette has written about local golf for the American Press since 1971. His column appears each Sunday. Contact him at 274-5689 or lbonnette@mcneese.edu
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