The Delta Classic Scholarship Golf Tournament July 15 at the Helena Country Club raised more than $25,000 to fund scholarships for crop, soil and environmental sciences students at the University of Arkansas.

Robert Bacon, head of the department of crop, soil, and environmental sciences in Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, said the tournament has raised over $288,000 for scholarships in 12 years.

Delta Classic scholarships of $2,000 for the 2011-2012 school year were awarded to Michael Crosby III of Little Rock, Drew Hill of Little Rock, Drake Norman of Lexa, Jordan Schwantz of Barton, Turner Earhart of DeWitt, Haley Gregory of Brinkley, Collin Hornbeck of DeWitt, Bennie Kirk of Huntsville, and Brian Wempe of Fayetteville.

Ninety-six scholarships have been awarded, and an endowment is being built for the James L. Barrentine Endowed Scholarship, Bacon said. A former department head, Barrentine started the tournament in 1999.

Matt Cordell of Lonoke was this year’s tournament director.  An agronomist with Crop Production Services, he is a member of CSES Alumni and Friends.

Corporate sponsors for the tournament were Allen Canning Company, Arkansas Farm Bureau, Isle of Capri, Crop Production Services, Helena Chemical Company and Monsanto.

Hole sponsors for the tournament were Ag Heritage Farm Credit Services; Arkansas Rice Council; BASF; Bayer CropScience LP; Cache River Valley Seed, LLC; Cheminova, Inc.; Coco Distributors; Dean-Henderson Equipment; Dow AgroSciences; Fuller Seed & Supply; Gillett Grain Services; Hickory Hills Pharmacy; Hornbeck Seed Co, Inc.; Mary Louise Demoret & V. Poindexter Fiser; Mid-South Ag Equipment; Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.; Producers Rice Mill, Inc.; and Syngenta. 

CSES Alumni and Friends involved in this year’s tournament included Dean Bell, Grant Carter, Adam Compton, Matt Cordell, Josh Cunningham, Gloria Fry, Otis Howe, Jr., Otis Howe, III, Claude Kennedy, Darrin Malone, Johnny Roach, Scott Rushing, Lance Schmidt, Dale Smith, Gerald Wilson and Richie Workman.

Winning team sponsors and golfers for three flights were:
-- The Erwin Keith team with Jody Gilbert, Mike Devazier and Mark McClanahan of Wynne and Jason Waldrip of Barton.
-- The Monsanto team of Mark Wichern with Collierville, Tenn., Freddie Ligon of Marvell, Tommy Jackson of Stuttgart, and Richie Workman of Little Rock.
-- The MidSouth Ag Equipment team with John Petty of Olive Branch, Miss., Craig Herring of Madisonville, Ken., Russ Jefferies of Southaven, Miss., and Chris Kellum of Olive Branch, Miss.