Jeff Moeller, sports correspondent

After his team finished fourth at the state tournament last year, Richmond Hill head golf coach Ron Smith had an inkling that his squad would use it as a prime motivator.

Now, Smith recently saw his team take one of their first major steps when they won the Area-1 Class 6A tournament at Richmond Hill Country Club. The Wildcats will advance to the Class AAAAAA state tournament May 18-19 at Bentwater Golf Club in Acworth.

“I thought when we left the state tournament last year, after finishing with a school best, fourth-place finish, that we had the pieces in place to be one of the top teams in the state at the 6A level,” noted Smith, who is in his second year at the helm. “I was not entirely surprised at winning the region (area) tournament.”

The Wildcats tallied a team score of 286 (+2) over Lowndes 291 (+7), Colquitt 296 (+12), Harrison 301 (+17), and Tift 308 (+24).

Senior Ledger Conley claimed individual medalist honors with a score of 4-under par 67. Sophomore Noah Bope finished tied for fourth with a 1-over par 72, senior Matthew Reynolds finished tied for seventh with a 2-over par 73, and senior Patrick Mahaffey finished tied for 10th with a 3-over par 74.

Heading into the Area tournament, Smith saw his team in an underdog role. In the scoring app they use, the Wildcats were ranked in the tournament.

I think the team was feeling pretty confident that we could play well,” said Smith. “But we also knew that we had Colquitt County and Lowndes from our own region, as well as Harrison from Region Three to compete with and even Tift County was playing better this season.”

Smith felt the team turned the corner for good at the Neil Graham Classic on April 13th.

“We had our top six in place by then and everyone was available that day and we played pretty well,” said Smith. “There were a couple mistakes here and there but we shot a season best 294 and ended in a tie for second place behind the host school. We left there knowing that the Area (region) tournament was two weeks away, and we were hosting it.”

Both Reynolds and Conley believed their play at the area tournament was the difference.

“The match where we turned the corner was the area tournament,” said Reynolds. “The vision really became clear, as we finally had our best six playing, and we were at our home course. It felt like we had the advantage the whole time and that helped us to get the job done.”

Yet, Conley had some initial doubts.

“When the teams and I were at Areas, I honestly didn’t think we were going to make states off the bat,” stressed Conley. “I thought we would have to fight for the fourth spot in sectionals, but we ended up beating the odds and playing extremely well as a team to win Area.

“We all played really well, and that gives us so much confidence going into states.”

This year, the Wildcats dealt with a packed schedule to start the season.

“We kind of struggled to start our season this year as we had three tournaments in the first 12 days after only two weeks of practice in some cold weather at the beginning of February,” reflected Smith. “We also took some younger guys to some of those early tournaments as Matthew Reynolds had a chance to play in a separate tournament and our number two player, Patrick Mahaffey, played in another tournament early in the season.”

Still, Smith was confident his team would stay the course.

“Our start wasn't great, but we kept reminding ourselves that it was only February,” said Smith. “When March came around, we had our top six guys playing at a tournament in Metter, and we played more like we had at the state tournament last year. We won at Metter with our lowest score of the season.”

The Wildcats are now eager to prove themselves at states.

“We are excited to head to Bentwater Golf Club in Acworth,” said Smith. “We’ll see how we look with the other 11 teams at the state tournament.”