Boys’ golf teams from around the region meet today at Hopkinsville Golf & Country Club for the 2nd Region Championship and the right to advance to the KHSAA State Tournament in Bowling Green.
All five area teams will hit the links with Daviess County and Owensboro Catholic taking spots in the final groups of the day with host Hopkinsville.
The Panthers were the champions last season, as they edged Ohio County by five shots and finished at 315. Former DC standout Daniel Love won medalist honors with a 72 to edge current Brescia golfer and former University Heights Academy Blazer Weston Wood, who finished second, and Catholic’s Jakob Wellman as he took third with a 75.
While the Panthers are back to defend their crown, it’ll be with several few faces on the course.
“We have two guys that have ever played a regional before,” DC coach Lars King said.
Nick Johnson will be playing in his fifth 2nd Region Tournament as Braden Whistle will be competing in his third.
“I’m worried about all five guys tomorrow,” King said. “As the last couple of tournaments played out, even in City-County, we didn’t even count Nick’s score. If we’re not able to count Nick’s score tomorrow it could be a tough day for us. He’s trending upward, he played well the second day in Lexington.”
Eighth-grader Grant Broughton has been a solid performer for the Panthers this season and King said Broughton is coming off of a great summer.
“I would not put it past the kid to go out there and shoot 72-73 and be one of the top four or five qualifiers,” he said. “He has the uncanny ability just to hold it together. He can be having a really bad day ball striking and somehow, he figures out how to get up and day to make pars from everywhere. He does struggle to make birdies, however. That’s kind of why some of his rounds have turned into 80 as opposed to being 75-77 because he doesn’t make many birdies, he makes a lot of pars.”
Catholic coach Bretnea Turner said her team is ready for today but they didn’t give it a lot of space in their heads in the days leading up to the tournament.
“Honestly, it’s kind of nice, but I don’t really hype up the region tournament with my guys and they really don’t either,” she said. “We never have … We try to play in some of the best tournaments around the state so that they’re used to playing with tough competition. They’re used to playing alongside people that could beat them on any given hole and I like that because it doesn’t really make them nervous going into the Region tournament.”
Wellman, Johnson and Hoptown’s James Folz will make up the final group of the day.
Two weeks ago, Catholic used a big second day to win the annual City-County Tournament as Wellman won medalist honors.
While the win was good, Turner said it’s in the past.
“We always have a good rivalry with Daviess County, year-in, year-out,” she said. “We pretty much have ever since I’ve been coaching so it’s always we want to beat Daviess County, Daviess County wants to beat us. It really is always like that and our guys get along great but they’re also all competitors. All the way down to the last man on JV, it’s a competition every time we’re on the course with them.
“Getting a win in City-County felt good but honestly, that was a couple of weeks ago. We have to forget about that, Winning City-County does not send us to the state tournament. That tournament is over and we’ve got our eyes set on playing a good, solid round tomorrow. Trying to limit mistakes and making sure we’re putting the best number up just to give us the best chance to go to state. If we are fortunate enough to do that, then it won’t really matter who we’re playing against, it won’t really matter who else is there.”
Apollo and Owensboro tee off earlier in the day as they’re the ones that are going to have to deal with the potentially wet weather.
With plenty of rain in the forecast and wind gusts, it could prove to be the equalizer.
“It’s going to be a completely different golf course than anybody has seen,” King said. “No one plays in that weather. No one goes out there with 25 mpg gusts and it’s 60 degrees tomorrow.”
