Play some golf and help a Lincoln County student become a Bulldog.

It’s tee time Friday as the 17th annual George C. Brown Memorial Golf Tournament gets underway.

The tournament, sponsored by the Mississippi State University Alumni Association Lincoln County Chapter, will benefit three future Bulldogs in the memory of Brown, chapter president Brooks Hall said.

“This tournament funds our scholarship we award once a year,” he said. “We gave the scholarship to three students this year.”

Brown, a 1931 graduate of Mississippi State University, past president of the Lincoln County Alumni Chapter and avid golfer, died in January 2000. The chapter began the scholarship later that year in his memory, using the golf tournament as a way to raise funds.

Student criteria for the scholarship are not extremely strict, Hall said.

“We give the scholarship based on the student who is most qualified, and has a need,” he said. “We try to base it on need. We also look to see if the students are children of Mississippi State alumni. That plays into it as well.”

Students who are awarded the scholarship do not have to be involved in golf.

Community members can sign up for the four-person scramble, hosted at the Copiah-Lincoln Community College Wolf Hollow Golf Course, as a team or individual.

Entry fees for a four-person team are $350, and include carts, green fees, a mulligan for each player, hole sponsorship and lunch. An individual player’s entry fee costs $80, and includes a cart, green fee and lunch.

“So far, we have eight teams — more than 30 golfers — signed up,” Hall said.

Companies looking to sponsor a hole during the tournament can do so with  $100 fee.

At least 20 sponsors have signed up, but Hall expects more.

Lunch for the tournament players will be served at noon Friday. Tee time is 1 p.m.

“The weather is supposed to be good Friday — highs in the 80s, with clear skies,” Hall said. “We are looking forward to a fun day of golf and providing for our local students.”

The Lincoln County chapter meets periodically throughout the year, when the occasion calls for it, Hall said.

“We are about to start making a push to get more members,” he said.

For more information about the golf tournament or the Mississippi State University Alumni Association Lincoln County Chapter, call Hall at 601-757-3503.