A unique team effort helped Darlington claim its eighth GHSA boys golf title Tuesday, May 20, at Twin City Country Club in Tennille.
Seven golfers the Tigers brought to the Classes 1A Division I-3A tournament contributed to the win, which came down to a sudden-death playoff against Mt. Paran.
“This is a special group of kids. They’ve been special all year long,” Darlington coach Jared Willerson said. “Usually, you’ve got one, two or – if you’re lucky – three kids that carry you. But this team is so deep. … It was just a special day.”
After Darlington and Mt. Paran finished their two rounds, they were stuck tied at 602 strokes.
The two replayed the 10th hole, a 361-yard par-4. Each team’s six active golfers played the hole, with the top four scores from each team counting.
No. 1 Darlington golfer Blair Moseley birdied the hole and No. 2 Jack Webb shot par on what Willerson called “an all-world up-and-down.”
No. 4 Viet Nguyen double-bogeyed and No. 3 Grayson Clark bogeyed to bring Darlington’s combined score to 2-over compared to Mount Paran’s 1-over.
But No. 5 golfer Will Willerson shot even on his attempt to drop the double-bogey from scoring and put Darlington at par. No. 6 Jasper Stepp bogeyed the hole.
Moseley, Webb, Will Willerson and Clark/Stepp combined to shoot par on the hole, while Mount Paran could not drop its score below 1-over.
“We celebrated with a big dogpile on the green,” Jared Willerson said. “It was awesome.”
Webb, a senior, was not originally supposed to compete at the state championship. He came to the tournament as an alternate, but was called upon when typical No. 2 Ethan Thoem broke a finger after hitting a rock.
“I’m so proud of Jack,” Jared Willerson said. “His family moved here from Indiana this year. He’s been a solid player all year long but always had a hard time cracking the lineup. He stepped up when we needed him most.”
When Webb first played the 10th hole in place of Thoem, he triple-bogeyed. He dropped three shots on his second attempt, the playoff.
In the first round of the tournament, held Monday, May 19, Darlington’s top four scorers combined to shoot 300, 12-over, and finished in sixth place as a team. Moseley and Nguyen each shot 2-over and Clark and Will Willerson each shot 4-over.
In the second round, held Tuesday, May 20, Nguyen shot par while Clark shot 3-over, Will Willerson shot 5-over and Moseley shot 6-over for a combined 14-over.
Initially, the 26-over total score did not look like it was going to be trophy-worthy.
“It was looking pretty bleak there for a while,” Jared Willerson said. “My guys had already loaded up the bus. … We were down eight shots. Then we were down six shots. Then we were down three shots. Then we were down two shots. The next thing you know, we’re tied.”
Nguyen finished fourth overall with his 2-over score across both rounds. Clark finished 15th with a 7-over, with Mosely (20th, 8-over) and Will Willerson (22nd, 9-over) in tow. Stepp finished 59th by shooting 21-over. Thoem had the 48th-best score in the first round with an 8-over and Webb had the 60th-best second-round score of 12-over.
The title broke Darlington’s 21-year drought without a boys golf title. It won state back-to-back in 1993 and 1994, won three times in four years in 1975, 1977 and 1978 and won one-off titles in 1971 and 1987.
This article was written by Zeke Palermo of the Rome News-Tribune and published online on May 21, 2025.
