Canadian McKenzie Hughes won the 55th Sanderson Farms Golf Championship with a birdie on the second hole of a playoff at Jackson Country Club on Sunday. Hughes claimed $1.422 million for the first-place finish, as the tournament total purse was $7.9 million. Hayden Buckley of Tupelo and first round leader Davis Riley of Hattiesburg tied for 19th in the tournament as both shot 278. Ramey shot a 65 on the final day while Riley’s opening round was 66. Three other Magnolia natives did not make the cut after the second day. Mississippi Amateur Champ Brice Wilkinson of Madison shot a 151and Chad Ramey of Tupelo came in at 153 while Columbus resident Joseph Hanko finished last in the field with a 166.
Ole Miss moved into the Top 25 at No. 9 with a heart-stopping 22-19 win over the No. 13 Kentucky Wildcats in Oxford on Saturday morning. The Rebels (5-0, 1-0) are off to their best start since 2014. Saturday’s win is partly credited to a tremendous defensive effort in the final 15 minutes of the contest. The Rebels came up with two turnovers late in the game to stop Kentucky’s game winning drives inside the Rebels’ 20-yard line to preserve the victory over the Wildcats. The defense also forced the Wildcats to turn over the ball on downs early in the final quarter. The Rebels head to Vanderbilt (3-2, 0-1) this Saturday for a 3 p.m. kickoff.
Mississippi State forced Texas A&M into four turnovers in downing the Aggies, 42-24, in Starkville on Saturday afternoon. The win moved the Bulldogs into the Top 25 at No. 23. Emmanuel Forbes, who blocked a field goal and came up with two interceptions, led the MSU defensive effort. The Bulldog defense posted four sacks and six tackles for loss on the day. Will Rogers and the offense rolled up 473 yards as Rogers hit on 31-of-45 passes for 329 yards and three scores. Mississippi State (4-1, 1-1) will host No. 25 Arkansas this Saturday at 11.
Southern Mississippi (2-2) will open Sun Belt Conference play with a road game versus Troy this Saturday night at 6 p.m.
Mississippi Valley fell to Florida A&M, 34-7, as Jackson State and Alcorn were idle. Valley (0-5, 0-2) hosts Alcorn (2-2, 1-1) on Saturday night while JSU (4-0, 2-0) travels to Alabama A&M for a 2 p.m. kickoff.
Mississippi College scored with eight seconds to play to shock No. 5 West Georgia in Gulf South play, 39-38. The visiting Choctaws moved 66 yards in the final three minutes to score and was successful on the two-point conversion. MC (2-3, 1-1) will host Shorter on Saturday at 2 p.m. No. 25 Delta State will certainly improve in the National Division II rankings as the Statesmen ran all over No. 13 Valdosta to the tune of 70-31. It was DSU’s first home game after beginning the season on the road for the first four games. DSU (5-0, 2-0) will head to North Greenville, NC, this Saturday. Belhaven scored in the final five minutes for a 34-27 win over Methodist. The Blazers (3-1, 1-1) hosts North Carolina-Wesleyan this week. Millsaps (2-2, 1-0) defeated Sewanee for their 17th consecutive win against the Tigers, 30-27. This week the Majors host Hendrix at 1 p.m. in their Homecoming Game.
In JUCO play, Northwest (5-0) defeated East Mississippi (3-2), 38-21, in the feature game of the week. Other winners were Jones, PRC, Holmes, Co-Lin, Southwest and Itawamba. The big game this week will be the annual Catfight as Jones (5-0) hosts Pearl River (3-2) on Saturday at 2 p.m. In Thursday games, Holmes (3-2) hosts Itawamba (2-3), East Central (0-5) goes to Northeast (2-3), Gulf Coast (2-3) hits the road to Co-Lin (3-2), Hinds (2-3) visits Southwest (2-3), East Mississippi (3-2) entertains Coahoma (3-2) and Northwest (5-0) welcomes Delta (0-5).
Listen to Dale and Marshall Wood on the Brouhaha Sports Show each Tuesday at 6 p.m. and Friday at 6:30 p.m. on WABO FM 105.5 in the Waynesboro area. This week’s guest is Ole Miss Athletic Director Keith Carter. To listen to the broadcast on your computer or smart phone anywhere in the world, go to Google Chrome; go to wabo105.com and click listen live. You may also go to The Brouhaha on YouTube to listen to archived shows. Dale has been writing sports since 1973. Contact him at ddmckee18@yahoo.com.
