What was supposed to be 36 holes turned into only 18, but a Class 1 state golf champion was crowned at Fremont Hills Country Club on Tuesday.
Gallatin took home the team title with a score of 339, seven strokes better than Greenwood and La Plata.
“It was a grind, a real grind for us on the back nine,” said Gallatin head coach Chad Sullenger. “We grinded it out and it was good enough to get first.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM THE CLASS 1 STATE GOLF TOURNAMENT.
After the tiebreaker, which was each team’s fifth man score, Greenwood took home third place honors, shooting 346. For a team that had state title as the goal all season long, the respectable finish still left a bitter taste.
“From day one we had a goal set of winning a state championships, competing for the state championship,” said head coach David Oatman. “[We] came up a little bit short.”
Blue Jay junior Tony Brandt led the way, finishing third in the state after shooting a plus-five 76.
“It feels pretty good,” he said. “Seventy-six is by no means the best score I’ve ever shot, but it was very respectable in those conditions.”
Brandt finished just two strokes off the lead and Green Ridge senior Peyton Needy, who took medalist honors with a 74.
“It feels pretty great,” Needy said. “I’ve been working at it for four years now, and it finally came my way. [It was] probably one of the hardest rounds I’ve played in my life, but you have to grind, make par, make things work.”
The weather was what made the round so hard. Torrential rain shortened Monday’s first round for some, and shortened the tournament as a whole to 18 holes rather than 36. Needy said that necessitated a simpler approach.
“The water definitely made it a little bit harder,” he said. “You had to club up each time you were hitting into the rain because it wouldn’t go as far. The putter was really hot. I only had twenty-four putts the entire tournament.”
Play was suspended Monday, and after the decision was made to make it an 18-hole tournament, Tuesday’s play consisted of finishing the first 18 for anyone who was unable to the day before.
“It’s a little bittersweet because we only had one day and we wish we could go chase it down, but it’s always good to get recognized for a year’s hard work,” Brandt said. “We played alright.”
It was simply another wrinkle to a tournament marred by rain from the first tee shot.
“Conditions were absolutely horrible, but everybody played under those conditions,” Oatman said. “Congratulations to Gallatin and La Plata. They did a wonderful job.”
The rain added an uncomfortable dimension to the contest.
“It was an adventure,” Brandt said. “You never really had any time to spare. You were always messing with your umbrella, your gloves, trying to keep things dry.”
“Conditions were absolutely miserable,” Sullenger said. “We had to perservere, and we played really well on the front nine. I thought if we could double our score on the front nine and play as well on the front, then we’d have a really good chance coming in to see whatever happened with the weather.”
Gallatin and Greenwood were two of the teams that finished a full round on Monday. Needy and Green Ridge had to go back out on Tuesday, with the eventual individual state champ needing to finish “a hole and a half” on the second day.
“I had to go out there and make sure to par both holes, which was kind of tough because I had to get up and down for both of them,” he said. “I made it happen.”
According to Sullenger, finishing on Monday and essentially having Tuesday off was an advantage.
“We got to go home and dry off a little bit and kind of sit around,” he said. “We didn’t have to come back out [Tuesday] morning, which I thought was a blessing in disguise.”
