Abney, Miller to meet in Cotton States title match
Charlie Miller (Ole Miss Athletics photo)
Only two men remain at the Cotton States Amateur and in Sunday’s final at Bayou DiSiard Country Club in Monroe, La, it will be an SEC-themed match. Incoming Alabama freshman Simms Abney will take on Charlie Miller, a rising sophomore at Ole Miss, for the title.
Both men prevailed in close semifinal matches on Saturday afternoon. Abney, from Madison, Miss., took down Lance Yates, 3 and 1. On the lower bracket, meanwhile, Miller, of Jackson, Miss., needed 19 holes to defeat Charlie Flynn.
Abney has advanced from the No. 4 spot on the 32-man bracket. All of his matches have been relatively close but for his second-round match against Dustin Hasley. Abney won, 7 and 5.
Miller earned the No. 15 seed at the start of the week. He immediately took out No. 18 seed Kyle Robinson, 5 and 4, and worked his way through the bracket from there.
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