It took a five-way playoff to determine the individual medalist, but Daviess County’s Daniel Love was able to edge Owensboro Catholic’s Reece Higdon and three other players after three extra holes to win the Daviess County Invitation on Friday’s opening day of the 2019 golf season.
The Panthers took first place as a team — and their B team finished in a tie for third — at Owensboro Country Club, while the Aces earned second place in a field of 18 teams that also included Owensboro, Trinity and Apollo.
The five-way tie — which also included James Folz (Hopkinsville), Jackson Hill (Madisonville-North Hopkins) and Nolan Nofsinger (Muhlenberg County) — was narrowed to three after the first playoff hole. Love, Folz and Hill each parred No. 18 to stay alive.
Hill was eliminated after a bogey on the par-5 No. 10, and Love again parred No. 18 to beat Folz for first place.
“I had a rough start today and sort of grinded it out toward the end,” Love said. “I was playing better toward the end of the day, so that gave me confidence going into the playoff. Those are always fun and great competition, so I’m lucky to come out on top.”
Love said his biggest gains of the day came on the greens.
“I putted really well today,” he said. “I think I managed well. I wasn’t the best today off the tee or with my irons but I still managed to hit them in safe places and make pars.”
Also scoring for Daviess County were Nick Johnson and Brady Huckleberry, who each shot 80. Chris Salamah and Braden Whistle tied for the fourth-best score on the team with an 82. Scoring players for the Daviess County B team were Gabe Vincent (80), Jayden Lanham (83), Kegan Hall (84) and Dawson Lamb (92).
Panthers’ head coach Lars King said he was not surprised, and he said he’s got 10 golfers that could put up strong scores in any tournament.
He said they’ve even got room to improve, as a few players shot higher than their typical scores. If they all put it together, he said, they should be though to beat.
“That’s the hard thing to relay to the kids,” King said. “You’re not playing against the rest of the field. You’re playing against yourself. If you shoot what you’re supposed to shoot, we’re going to win by 10.”
Owensboro Catholic’s other scoring players were Jakob Wellman (75), JT Payne (81) and Noah Johnson (93). Head coach Bretnea Turner was happy with the finish.
“JT shot his best round ever today,” she said. “He shot an 83 in the GO Junior Series and that was his previous best and he wanted to beat that. I’m super happy with the way Reece played today, grinding it out and battling it out. I’m really proud of him.”
Owensboro shot 360 with scoring from Jack Lashbrook (82), Andrew Chancellor (87), James Rhineburger (90) and Lucas Lyons (101).
Trinity shot 423 with scoring from Brady McBrayer (104), Hunter O’Bryan (105), Blake McBrayer (107) and Landon Huff (107).
Apollo shot 437 with scoring from Isaac Crabtree (99), Nathan Payne (106), Tanner Klee (111) and Ethan Dych (121).
