Both Daviess County golf teams hold a strong lead after day one of their respective city-county matches, with the Owensboro Catholic teams currently sitting in second place.
A trio of girls posted low scores of 40 on the front nine holes Monday at the Owensboro Country Club. The top group of Daviess County’s Grace Heady, Owensboro Catholic’s Emma Payne and Apollo’s Briley Carter will chase the individual medalist title, with Owensboro’s Savannah Gatton (41) leading a pack not far behind.
For the boys, Daviess County’s Daniel Love posted a 1-under 35 to hold a four-shot lead going into day two. The boys tournament is being held at The Summit, where they will play the back nine holes today.
GIRLS
Every golfer for the Lady Panthers finished day one with scores under 50, a result head coach Rachel Lindow said she can’t complain about.
“When any five girls can shoot in the 40s, it’s an awesome day,” she said. “I’ll take that any day.”
Rounding out the scoring for DCHS were Addison Heady (46), Holly Holton (42), Emilee Clark (44) and Kirsten Henderson (48).
Lindow said it was nice to finally get low scores again. After a good start to the season, she said the Lady Panthers have had some trouble lately.
“Recently, we’ve been struggling with our scores,” she said. “We had a goal in mind for city-county, and we met that goal today. Before we left, we set new goals for tomorrow’s round, so hopefully we can meet those.”
Her team will be heavy favorites to come out on top, as they hold a big lead over Owensboro Catholic and Apollo.
Led by Payne (40), the Lady Aces other scorers from day one were Abby Bahnick (43), Maddi Roberts (42), RC Porter (70) and Conleigh Osborne (64). Carter led the E-Gals, with other scores coming from Macey Brown (42), Brooke Brown (52) and Mary Ann Lyons (67). Owensboro has a pair of golfers competing as individuals in Gatton and Angel Howson (50).
Lindow said she wants to make sure her players focus on putting together another good round without thinking too much about having a lead.
“I try to keep them playing their game,” Lindow said. “I don’t want them thinking too far in advance because anything can happen. They do know they are expected to win, but I don’t push that. They know they can go out and post great scores tomorrow.”
BOYS
The boys contest was originally scheduled to be played at the Country Club, but Daviess County head coach Lars King said the last minute change was made to make it better for the teams.
“It’s a lot harder golf course than these guys are used to, but it’s in good shape,” he said. “When you play with the girls on the same day, you fight darkness and it wasn’t a good play to try to have everybody on the same course. And they are able to come out here and experience another golf course.”
For most of the players, it was a tough day on a difficult course, but Love was able to put together a low round thanks to four birdies to give his team a lead. Other scorers for the Panthers were Jesse Holton (39), Nick Johnson (46), Brady Huckleberry (47) and Braden Whistle (50).
“You have to hit good, quality golf shots,” King said. “Under par out here is a great score. It’s longer. It’s a different long because it’s all carry. You can’t just plod it down the fairway to the green. You have to execute.”
Owensboro Catholic head coach Bretnea Thomas Turner said that length was big factor in her team having on off day.
“Today our struggle was that it’s long out here,” she said. “For our No. 1, that’s usually a strength, but he had two holes that really tore him apart today. For our younger players, length is not our friend. Once they’re on the green, they can usually close it out and finish.”
Griffin Payne (42) had the low round for the Aces, while typical leading scorer Jakob Wellman posted a 46. Also scoring for OCHS were JT Payne (49), Noah Johnson (51) and Sam Mitchell (53). Turner said the team will have to forget about day one and come out fresh for the back nine hole.
“Tomorrow is a new day and they have a chance for redemption,” she said. “They can come out and play the same course and have a score they will feel better about. Today was pretty much a low point for a lot of our players. They will play better tomorrow. I’d bet my life on it.”
Owensboro follows closely behind OCHS after getting scores from Jack Lashbrook (39), Paul Iracane (44), Andrew Chancellor (53), James Rhineburger (56) and Lucas Lyons (58). Apollo’s scorers were Noah Stewart (47), Isaac Crabtree (47), Nathan Payne (57) and Aiden Watson (63). Trinity’s Trenton Morris (50) had their low round, followed by Sam Russelburg (55), Luke Payne (57), Blake McBrayer (56) and Hunter O’Bryan (63).
