BLYTHEWOOD (April 7, 2017) – As the Blythewood boys’ golf season heads into its final turn on the fairway, the Bengals make their way toward the 2016 clubhouse with their annual home tournament. This year’s tournament, however, will be a bittersweet affair, as the team has renamed their Bengal Invitational to honor one of their own – one of the fallen: Parks Hutto.
Hutto was barely 14 when he passed away on June 11, 2015 from complications associated with Myocarditis, an inflammatory disease of the heart muscles. The tournament, Monday and Tuesday at the Columbia Country Club, will honor Hutto’s memory.
“This is my 16th year coaching high school golf, and (Hutto) was one of the most unique young men I have ever seen,” BHS golf coach Allen Hancock said. “He had a maturity about him that was astonishing for his age. I think God gave him an adult mind, knowing He would be calling him home early.”
The tournament will host 27 of the area’s top golf teams, from Class 1A to Class 4A, Hancock said, including the Bengals, and will help raise money for the Bengal golf program. Joining the Bengals will be A.C. Flora, Chapin, Dutch Fork, Cardinal Newman, Ben Lippen and others, for a shotgun start beginning at 10 a.m. Monday on the Bengals’ home turf.
“The Columbia Country Club treats us wonderfully,” Hancock said. “High school golf is dependent on local clubs and many places don’t have it near as good as we have it. The membership and the general manager are wonderful to us.”
Hutto had been a member of the Bengals varsity golf team since his seventh-grade year, and was the kind of teammate a coach could build a program around.
“You couldn’t spend 20 minutes around him and not absolutely love him,” Hancock said. “He was an amazing young man and we miss him terribly. It’s just not as much fun to be out there without Parks out there.”
