By Don Eskins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Joplin Eagles carded a tournament low 315, three strokes better than the Nixa Eagles who came in at 318, to claim this year’s Ozark Invitational Championship played at the Fremont Hills Country Club Golf Course on Thursday.
Top medalist Harry Satterlee with a 74 and Fielding Campbell, who logged a 77, led the Joplin effort.
“I’ve got a good group of kids this year and they can all play,” said Eagle coach Jack Pace. “Harry, who was also low medalist last week at Twin Hills with a 73, has done a great job of leading our team even though he’s just a freshman.”
Satterlee dropped in four birdies en route to carding his low round of 74.
“I got off to a slow start but back to back birdies on the back nine sort of jump started my round,” he said. “I putted well today also. I didn’t have any three putts and that made me really happy.”
Rounding out the Eagle scoring was Hobbs Campbell 82, Will Satterlee 82 and Ethan Sage 83.
For Nixa the second place finish at Fremont Hills marked another close loss. But according to head coach Jeff Lotz his troops continue to improve.
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“Our kids have had some near misses this year, but they’ve still played well. They’ve finished in the top three in most of our tournaments this year and when you consider that tournaments usually consist of 15 to 20 teams I’d say that’s pretty good,” said Lotz. “I’m really pleased with the progress they’ve been making this year. We just need to continue to get better each week.”
Chance Wilhite led all Nixa linksters with a 77.
“We’ve played pretty solid all year and today we had another close one. We just didn’t quite get it done.” Lotz said. “But we almost won and had we dropped in a few more shots we could have. We just need to keep working hard in practice. We still have a lot of season left.”
Also posting scores for the Nixa Eagles were Meyer Lively 79, Jonathan Miller 80, Chandler Burch 82 and Jordan Hatman 87.
Finishing third at the Ozark Invitational were the Ozark Tigers. Carding the top score for the Cats was Kyler Smith with a 77. Also contributing to the Ozark effort were Carter Chronister 79, Carter Jackson 82, Alijah Hampton 86 and Boston Huddleston 87.
Also having big days at Fremont Hills were Kickapoo’s Hayden Wiggins and Springfield Catholic’s Tyler Han who both fired 76’s to finish tied for the tournament’s second best score.
“I’ve been playing pretty solid most all season but I feel like today has been my best outing of the year,” said Wiggins. “I felt confident both on the tee and with my putter.”
“Today I got up and down pretty well but even so I feel like I could have played better,” he said. “After chipping in for a birdie on nine I doubled ten. Had I played number ten a little better I could have gotten my score down even lower. But I’m happy with a 76.”
“I played really well today but I also had a little luck along the way,” said Han. “On number thirteen I hit a shot that was headed out of bounds but it hit a curb and bounced back into play. I managed to make a birdie on the hole.”
It’s been a rough start for Han’s Springfield Catholic Fightin Irish this year but he says they are young and showing improvement each week.
“We have had a rough start this season but we are a very young team. We’re just excited to be out here competing,” he said. “We’re working hard and putting things together. Hopefully we’ll be ready for district.”
Ozark’s Top Ten
1. Joplin- 315
2. Nixa- 318
3. Ozark- 324
4. Catholic- 347
5. Carthage- 359
6. Branson- 361
7. Carl Junction- 362
8. Webb City- 363
9. Republic- 368
10. Marshfield- 388
Ozark Medalists
1 – Harry Satterlee – 74- Joplin
T2 – Hayden Wiggins – 76 – Kickapoo
T2 – Tyler Han- 76 – Catholic
T4 – Fielding Campbell – 77 – Joplin
T4 – Kyler Smith – 77 – Ozark
T4 – Chance Wilhite – 77 – Nixa
T7 – Carter Chronister – 79 – Ozark
T7 – Meyer Lively – 79 – Nixa
T8 – Nathan Woodmansee – 80 – Branson
T8 – Jonathan Miller – 80 – Nixa
