Miller takes Cotton States title after lopsided title match
Charlie Miller, Tournament Chairman Stewart Causey, runner-up Sims Abney (Twitter photo)
After a long week at the Cotton States Amateur, Charlie Miller is the champion. Miller, a rising Ole Miss sophomore from Jackson, Miss., made relatively quick work of fellow Mississippian Simms Abney in Sunday’s championship match at Bayou DiSiard Country Club in Monroe, La.
The match seemed in Miller’s favor from early on. He was 3 up on Abney, an incoming Alabama freshman, by the time the two made the turn. Miller then knocked in a mid-range birdie putt at No. 11 to go 4 up and made another birdie at the next hole to take his advantage to 5 up.
When Miller’s drive hit a tree at No. 13, Abney had a small opening. He failed to take advantage, however, and the hole was halved with bogeys.
Abney conceded the hole, and the match, on the par-5 14th.
Miller’s Cotton States title is the latest on a summer hot streak. He finished in the top 10 at the Southern Amateur and followed that with a fourth-place finish at the Mississippi State Amateur.
ABOUT THE
Cotton States Amateur
Originally played in 1949 as the Bayou
DeSiard Labor Day Golf Tournament, the
tournament's
name was changed to the Cotton States
Invitational in 1951 by the club's young head
professional, W. E. "Winnie" Cole. He felt that
the
name better reflected the main states that the
tournament's players originated from (and a
move
to
mid-summer made the name a necessity later
anyway). Little did Cole know that 27 years
later, in
1978, the event would be renamed again,
forever to
be known as the W. E. Cole Cotton States
Invitational Golf Tournament.
Past champions of this highly competitive, yet
festive
tournament include Don January and Hal
Sutton. Gil
Morgan, David
Toms and many other PGA Tour players have
also
competed. The tournament field field is limited
to 96
amateur
participants
having a verified USGA Handicap Index not
exceeding 0.0. Long a match play event, the
format was changed in 2021 to 72 holes of
stroke play.
View Complete Tournament Information