By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — There’s never a dull moment in the Crowder-Dorsett Labor Day Four-Ball Tournament.

The team of Keith Dorsett/Jacob Smith won a playoff hole with an eagle. That eagle provided not only medalist honors, but the No. 1 seed in the Championship Flight for the holiday tournament.

Dorsett/Smith edged former Salisbury High stars Clark Alcorn and Eric Edwards, who got the No. 2 seed, with that timely eagle after both teams scorched the Country Club of Salisbury layout for 66s.

Dorsett has prevailed in this event before and knows what it takes to get to come out on top. He teamed with Eric Mulkey to win the 2004 championship.

Also making the 16-team Championship Flight were third-seeded Derek Lipe and William Little, the 2020 champs. They combined for a 67 and they were the first 67 to report. The first score reported was used to break ties, with the exception to that rule being ties for medalist honors and for the last handful of spots in the field.

Seeded fourth in the Championship Flight with a 67 is the father/son team of Chris and John McCoy.

John is very young, a high school freshman, but Michael Childress (2014) and Charlie Barr (2016) already have proven that talented youngsters can be champions in the prestigious Labor Day event.

Chris McCoy has been here before. He formed half of Labor Day championship teams in 1994 and 1999.

Also shooting 67 in qualifying were the fifth-seeded Swaringens, Michael and Mitchell. They’re frequent contenders in local golf tournaments.

Chace Jensen/Ryan Szalay is the sixth-seeded team after shooting the only 68.

There were a host of 69s including Todd Pegram/Chris Bowers; Kyle Wright/Michael Dorsett;  Josh Brincefield/Barr, Karl Mitchell/Patrick Gregg; Tyler Mulkey/Eric Mulkey, and Dwayne McIntyre/Brad Vinson.

The other four teams that made the Championship Flight qualified with 70s. That’s Shane Benfield/Jerry Wright; Josh Honeycutt/Jason Ridenhour; Terrain Gill/Andre Robinson and Kevin Lentz/Chad Frye.

As the No. 16 seed, Lentz and Frye will be taking on Keith Dorsett and Smith in the first round.

Besides the Championship Flight, there are eight Open Flights of eight golfers each. They’ll swing from the blue tees.

It took at least an 82 to qualify for the Eighth Flight, and two 82s didn’t make it. They were ousted on playoff holes.

The teams of Stephen Bullock/Brian Chapman and Dylan Carpenter/Ryan Burke were the last two to make the field.

Bullock and Chapman won the main event in 1997, and Bullock was also half of a championship team in 2000.

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Defending champions John Henderlite/John Kyger are looking for a repeat in the Super Senior (65+) division, but there are strong challengers.

The team of Eric Norris/Andy Porter shot 69 in qualifying and grabbed medalist honors and the No. 2 seed by winning a playoff with Doug Glenn/Greg Chappell.

It took a 76 to qualify for the Super Senior Championship Flight, and it took a 78 to make the bracket for the Super Senior Open Flight.

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In the Senior Division (55+), champs Robert Jernigan/Robert Shoaf are back to defend their title.

Richard Cobb/Jim Christy shot 70 for medalist honors in that division and will be the No. 2 seed.

It took a 75 to make the Senior Championship Flight.

There are also two Senior Open Flights. It took an 83 or better to make the field.

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This tournament has a ton of history. It started 70 years ago, with the duo of Ken Monroe/A.D. Dorsett taking the inaugural championship.

It’s fitting that two descendants of the legendary A.D. Dorsett, who played some football for Georgia Tech in the 1940s, are in the Championship Flight.

Chad Campbell is the tournament director.

Susan Wydner is the volunteer coordinator for the tournament. It takes a ton of volunteers to make it all work.

And it also takes sponsors such as New Sarum, Wallace Realty, Blandy Hardwoods, Cheerwine, Statewide Title and Novant Health.

They’ll get started with match play on Saturday. A list of pairings, times and starting holes is online.