88 teams set for 59th annual Men's Four-Ball golf tournament

Cody Flowers and Drew Higginbothom will team up once again this weekend in a bid to win a second Men's Four-Ball Invitational title.

Both have played the tournament in past years as a duo as well as with different partners.

The tournament, now in its 59th year, will be played Saturday and Sunday, July 11-12, at the Forrest City Country Club.

Flowers and Higginbothom, playing as first time partners in 2019, shot a two day, 27 hole total 10 under par 97 to win the rain shortened tournament.

They will be challenged by several teams who have played well in the tournament, including Matt Howton and Warren Hood.

Last year, Howton and Hood captured their fourth tournament title with a two stroke victory in the championship round. The duo won the four ball title in 2017 and 2018.

Flowers, teaming with Baker Aldredge won the 2016 four ball title.

Eighty-eight, two man teams, up from 86 a year ago, will take the course Saturday morning with the first two teams scheduled to tee off at 7:22. The rest of the field will follow, teeing off in eight minute intervals, with the final two teams teeing off at 1:32 p.m.

Hood and Howton are scheduled to tee off at 10 a.m., while Flowers and Higginbothom are scheduled to tee off at 10:32, along with the team of Brian Wilson and Aaron Owens.

While the actual tournament does not begin until Saturday morning, the practice rounds for the annual pre-tournament Shootout will be held today, beginning at 4 p.m. Registration will begin at 3:30 at the scoreboard and the fee is $40 per team. That will be followed by a catfish dinner and entertainment by Anna Brinker.

Brinker is scheduled to perform Friday night, while Forrest City's own Eli Adams is scheduled to perform Saturday night.

Brinker caught the eye of Forrest City's Anna Howton two years ago during a performance at Marianna's Autumn on the Square.

Anna was born in Illinois, but her family found roots in Arkansas in 2002. She has loved singing since she was a little girl and vividly remembers her parents smiling and singing Bobby McGee in the living room while her daddy played guitar.

She sang in church with her mother and had lots of car jam sessions with her, listening to John Denver and The Eagles on eight track. Her first guitar was a pawn shop Abilene, gifted to her by her daddy with a set of strings in 2007.

Her biggest musical influences include: Bill Scranton, Miranda Lambert, Lee Ann Womack, John Denver, Carly Pearce, Pistol Annies, Johnny Cash, Ashley McBryde, Merle Haggard, Tammy Cochran, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, SHeDaisy, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Sr. & The Dixie Chicks.

Brinker is a 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2021 Arkansas Country Music Award Nominee.

She won Duo of the Year with Adam Cunningham at the 2020 ACMA's for their duet "Thinkin Bout You" and is nominated for 2021 Album of the Year for her album "Rain and Whiskey", released in January of 2020.

Brinker recently added Joey Evans as her guitarist.

Brinker has spent most of her life in Arkansas and now lives in Stuttgart.

For those who may not know exactly what a four-ball golf tournament is, here is a brief description.

Adams, who recently released his first CD, found his musical roots in Forrest City as part of the Headliners band, will be performing with his own Eli Adams band.

"Four ball" is a golf format in which two golfers partner one another, each golfer playing his or her own golf ball throughout, and the lower of the partners' scores counting as the team score on each hole. Four ball is usually played as match play, with two, two-person teams facing off.