Daviess County boy’s golf grabbed first place as a team at the City-County Golf Tournament, while Owensboro Catholic’s Jakob Wellman grabbed first by seven strokes to steal the show individually.
The Panthers shot a 315 to narrowly defeat the Aces who finished with a season-best 316 for second place. Owensboro followed behind the two and grabbed third place with a score of 374, Apollo shot a 391 for fourth and Trinity finished in fifth with a score of 406.
Braden Whistle led Daviess County while grabbing second place individually, shooting a 75 over the two days.
Panthers Head Coach Lars King said that Whistle really stepped up for the team when it mattered most after having a rough match recently.
“Braden Whistle played really well,” King said. “He’s kind of really been hit or miss. He shot 74 two weeks ago, shoots 87 and then comes out here and shoots 75. So it’s like you don’t know which Whistle is going to show up, but when he shows up and he plays the way he did and had fun today, it’s a joy to be around and to be able to watch.”
Dawson Lamb was right behind with a score of 79 to tie for third place overall, while fellow teammates Gabe Vincent and Grant Broughton rounded out their top-four scores with an 80 and 81 respectively.
Wellman led the Aces with a 68 while also grabbing first individually, while Houston Danzer (79), JT Payne (84) and MR Crabtree (85) rounded out their top-four scores overall.
Trevor Cecil led the Eagles with an 88, while Ethan Clements (99), Aiden Watson (102) and Mason Poe (102) rounded out their top-four.
Trinity had Gavin Howard lead the charge with an 85, while Landon Huff followed closely behind with an 89. Meanwhile, Blake McBrayer and Finn Williams finished with 104 and 128 to close out the team’s overall score.
King said that Broughton didn’t have his strongest performance and needed players to step up and said that Whistle did that with his play while providing the leadership his team needed.
“When you gotta count four scores, you gotta have somebody step up when one guy doesn’t play well,” King said. “Grant had a rough day, a rough two days really, and Braden was able to kind of step up and be that senior leader we needed the last two days really.”
King said it was a combination of their ball-striking and a little luck late that helped push them to the top.
“Most of them have found something ball-striking wise that has allowed them to make golf a little bit easier,” King said. “They struggled putting the last two days [and it came down to a little luck] to be honest. Dallas made a 20-footer on the last hole and Grant made a 20-footer on the last hole for us to win by one. You don’t know it at the time, but you gotta preach to them all year that one shot might make the difference and today those one shots did make the difference.”
King also gave credit to Owensboro Catholic, saying that they played incredibly and made it a fun competition.
“Congrats to Catholic on playing their best round of the year so far,” King said. “It made it really interesting. We didn’t realize how close it was. Because the ones have such a discrepancy it brings everybody kind of into the field.”
Wellman agreed with King’s high notion, saying that the team is heading forward in a very positive light after a great performance.
“As far as the team goes we were very close,” Wellman said. “I feel like we’re definitely trending in the right direction. We shot the lowest team score that we have in a long time and we haven’t even been remotely close to that this year. So that’s definitely something positive to see being so close to region.”
Head Coach Bretnea Thomas said the team is getting closer and closer to reaching their potential with a performance like theirs at the Owensboro Country Club.
“All season we have had guys shoot good individual scores here and there, but this has been the first time that we really shot in the wheelhouse of our potential and I couldn’t be more proud,” Thomas said. “We would have loved to walk away with the win tonight, but instead, we proved to ourselves that a score like 316 is not only possible, but attainable. That will mean so much more to us in the coming weeks as we narrow our focus to prepare for the Region Tournament.”
Individually Wellman said he’d been struggling with his wedge play as of late, but was able to shore that up today and allow himself to play closer to the whole.
“I really didn’t make too many mistakes,” Wellman said. “That was kind of the thing that I noticed. I kind of plotted my way around. I really focused on making pars on the back because I know it’s the harder side and it was windy and the front nine the conditions were a little bit better and the front side I think is a little bit easier so that’s when I tried to make all of my birdies pretty much.”
Wellman was thrilled to represent the community with his individual win at City-County and hopes to set an example for future golfers.
“It means a lot,” Wellman said. “It’s good to represent Owensboro hopefully in a positive way and Owensboro Catholic, they have a long line of good golfers so I’m proud to kind of keep that tradition going. And hopefully the younger kids will learn from that and they’ll be doing the same thing here in a couple years.”
