With temperatures reaching near 100 degrees by mid-day, participants in Cambrian Ridge's Firecracker Scramble tourney on the Fourth of July saw some hot action early on.

With 120 reservations for the tournament, the staff at Robert Trent Jones Cambrian Ridge Golf Course was busy bright and early, making final preparations to ensure that all needs were met, and there were enough golf carts lined up at the startup point.

While the Sherling and Lob Lolly courses were reserved for the tournament, the Canyon and short course remained open to the public for golfing.

Mark Miller, the lead singer for the hit group Sawyer Brown, spent the day playing 27 holes on the Canyon Course, and

echoed the sentiments of many first timers at Cambrian Ridge has he reached the turn.

"The Canyon has not been nice to us," he said.

As the golfers arrived starting at 10 a.m., attendants met them in the parking lot on carts to carry them and their clubs to the startup point.

The practice greens were filled with anxious golfers trying to perfect that last minute putting technique.

Golfers were served a deli lunch at 11:30, and the tournament got underway at 12:30, following a welcome and explanation of the tournament rules by head golf professional Justin Dupuis.

As with all "scrambles", each three player team was given a course and hole to start on, so that all players were beginning at once.

The first drive of the day was by Malcolm Thompson, on the Lob Lolly one, which is a 467 yard par five hole.

Overall, the atmosphere was good, and like always, all players said they felt that the course was a tremendous challenge.

The youngest player in the tournament was 17-year-old McLean Hickmandaughter of Greenville Attorney Frank Hickman.

Play continued well into the afternoon, and the last golfers arrived at the scoreboard at nearly 5:30 p.m.

Enduring the heat all afternoon,

most of the golfers opted to retire to the air conditioning of the clubhouse after turning in their scorecards at the big board.

After carefully tallying the score cards, Dupuis invited all players into the clubhouse restaurant, where the winners were presented with their prizes.

Dupuis commented, "The staff here at Cambrian Ridge worked extremely hard preparing for this tournament, and I feel that it has been a grreat success."

Coming in first place was the team of:

Frank Ostrander-Andalusia, Joe Harrison-Montgomery, and John Harrison-Montgomery with a combined net score of 59.7 .

Second place, just one tenth of a stroke behind at 59.8 net score was the team of Dent Neilson-Montgomery, Wayne Brooks-Greenville, and Ron McSpadden-Greenville.

Third place honors went to the team of Malcolm Thompson-Greenville, Hunter Barrow-Greenville, and Jimmy Russell-Greenville, with a combined net score of 60.2 .

The first place prize was $250.00 gift certificates; second place was $150.00 gift certificates; and third place winners received $75.00 gift certificates from the Cambrian Ridge pro shop.

Winner of the "Closest to the hole" on Sherling number 4 was Ron McSpadden, and Ronnie Paulk took the prize for the Lob Lolly number 6

They each won gas grills.