Staff report

Qualifying for the 63rd annual Crowder-Dorsett Memorial 4-Ball Golf Tournament will begin on Friday at the Country Club of Salisbury.

Chad Campbell, head golf professional, will direct his second Labor Day tournament, after arriving in early 2015. Campbell announced that the tournament, a Labor Day tradition, has 132 two-person teams qualifying this weekend, Friday through Sunday.

The championship flight of 16 and the nine open flights of eight teams will be decided out of the low 88 twosomes in the 94-team field.

Defending champions Phil Miller and Andrew Morgan are playing together again this year. There is also a buzz about the partnership of young guns Nick Lyerly and Michael Childress. Both junior golfers have had a full summer of play in prestigious tournaments, including the U.S. Junior Amateur in Tennessee in July.

Lyerly was second in the Big I Tournament in Sacramento after that and in June, the East Rowan senior won the North Carolina Amateur in Chapel Hill.

Childress, a junior at Cannon School in Concord, will play on his home course at the country club.

“It should be fun,” said Lyerly on Tuesday, after winning the Rowan Junior Open at Warrior Golf Club. “But nobody is going to give us anything out there. We’re not even in the championship flight yet, so we better put up a good score in qualifying on Friday. There are a lot of great golfers in this county that are playing in this tournament.”

In the Super Sr. Division (65 years old and up), there was a record turnout of 16 teams.  Traditionally, there has been only one flight, but this year the tournament committee decided to have a Super Sr. Championship flight of eight teams and another flight of four twosomes. Therefore, 16 teams will be playing for 12 spots.

As earlier announced, there are two Senior flights (55-64 years old) this year and 17 teams will fight to get into the Senior championship flight of eight teams. The next eight teams will play in the Sr. Open flight.

In the women’s flight, there are just five teams and they will play for seeding. A big change in the women’s flight: There will be a new champion crowned, or at least, by half.

Allison Dupree Adams and Grace Yatawara won all five previous Labor Day women’s championships. Yatawara was just 13 years old when the two women teamed up for their first win. Yatawara is now a freshman at East Carolina and will not play in this year’s event.

Adams hopes to continue the dominance, this year with a new partner, Micah Furr, a senior at Carson High School, a consistent performer for the Cougars. Furr won the South Piedmont Conference championship last fall.

Qualifying will start at 11:00 on Friday and will conclude on Sunday afternoon.  The women will play from the red tees, the Super Seniors will play from the gold tees, the Seniors will play from the white tees, and all others will qualify from the black tee markers.

Once flights are determined, the open flights will play from the blue tees and the championship flight will continue to play from the black tees.