By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
(Republic, MO) – Strafford senior Taylor Stone successfully defended his Class 2, District 3 title on Monday afternoon at Island Green Golf Club. Stone not only won individual honors but also led Strafford to the district team championship. Stone successfully navigated what many called a ‘difficult course’ with a dominating performance, shooting 11 strokes better than his second place opponent, Alexander Spencer Crane of Clever. Mount Vernon also qualified for the sectional with their second place team finish.
Playing a practice round in high wind conditions over the weekend gave Stone confidence in today’s game.
“The course played shorter than the way they had it Saturday, so that helped,” said Stone. “I felt like I just kept it in play, did a good job of not making big mistakes. The weather didn’t really have much factor. On hole 17 it started raining but it wasn’t bad, it really just started to cool everything off, it was fine. This is the second district that I’ve won. I feel better about his one, I feel pretty good about it. I don’t know about winning state individually but we will certainly try to win state as a team. Hopefully, we can win sectionals next week and go to state as a team. That was our goal so hopefully we do that.”
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Marking his first season as the head coach at Strafford, Tyler Ryerson couldn’t be more proud of his team.
“They all played well,” said Ryerson. “Consistency has been the most important thing for us all year, and they have been really consistent. Obviously at the top, when you have a kid like Taylor, he just makes it so easy for the rest of us, he kind of gives us some wiggle room.”
Ryerson could not contain his enthusiasm for his senior, Stone.
“When you have a guy like Taylor who shoots at 75 and wins by 11, it just gives us some wiggle room and makes it a lot easier for us,” said Ryerson. “I don’t know if Taylor is great at anything but he is so good at everything. He gets himself out of trouble, he hits it long off the tee, he putts really well, his approach shot is probably the best part of his game. He puts himself in such a good position every hole. It’s hard to say what the best part of it is because he’s really good at all of them. He has kept his cool a lot recently; he has not let anything get to him. He will have a bad hole and he’ll move on and get past it. Golf is so mental; you can blow a hole and never want to play golf again. He is 100% a calming force on the team; the other kids know they can count on Taylor to be really good, he’s their leader. We are going to miss him next year, for sure.”
