Cookeville High Golf Teams Have Eyes Set On State Championship

Cookeville native and 22-year Army veteran Larry Pitts is entering his eleventh season coaching the boys and his ninth season coaching the girls golf teams at Cookeville High School. Pitts and both of his teams have their eyes set on Willowbrook Golf Course in Manchester, Tennessee for the state championship.

In the ten previous seasons the boy’s team are winners of the District Six, AAA eight times and have captured the region championship four times as well during that time span. The girls have one region championship under their belts and a handful of runner ups in the district.

“I’ll have five freshmen this year with the boys,” Pitts said. “I’ll have two seniors also. We are hoping to have a really good year. But I know we will be up and down some because we are young. I’ve picked up two freshmen girls this year as well.”

The boys are reining district and region champs, and after it looked like the girls would not advance to the regionals, they beat Livingston in a one-hole playoff to qualify for the region tournament. Pitts hopes he can coach both boy’s and girl’s teams into peaking at the right time this year.

Pitts stresses to both team’s mental toughness and for them not to hit the panic button and to keep playing. Those two coaching points were never more evident than in the region tournament this past year in Cleveland where his boys were down three strokes at the turn.

“I told them both this is what we have worked on in practice. Being mentally tough, trying to outlast our opponents,” Pitts said. “And when it really counted we have to go out and make it happen. And they did that.”

Both boys and girls team tee it up this afternoon in their first contest of the year against Warren and White counties at the Golden Eagle Country Club.