HOUGH’S COVER HAS INDIVIDUAL LEAD, BROUGHTON TOPS TEAMS IN NCHSAA 4-A BOY’S GOLF

SANFORD—Patrick Cover of Cornelius W.A. Hough fired a four-under par 68 on Monday to take the individual lead in the 79th annual North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 4-A men’s golf championships at Carolina Trace Country Club.

Cover has a three-shot lead on the field, with Preyer Fountain of Raleigh Broughton the only other 4-A golfer to come in with a sub-par round with a 71. A total of five golfers are at even par, four shots off the pace.

The championship is being contested on a par-72 layout set at 6,698 yards for the NCHSAA event.

A Wake County school has won the men’s 4-A team golf title 18 times in the last 28 years, including four of the last five, and Raleigh Broughton is in position to add to that total. Broughton, the 2012 champion, is five shots ahead of defending champ Southern Pines Pinecrest, the last non-Wake County school to win, taking the title in 2008 and last year.

Cornelius Hough is third at 301 and Charlotte Myers Park is fourth at 303.

Prior to 1986, all NCHSAA schools competed for a single title in an open tournament. Play went to three classifications in 1986 and then to four classes beginning with the 1998 tournaments.

A total of 84 golfers began play in the two-day tournament. Action is scheduled to resume at eight o’clock on Tuesday morning.