The Coalfield Conference Golf Tournament did not exactly go according to plan Tuesday on the Cobb Course at The Resort at Glade Springs.
While there were no big surprises in regards to the winners, the real surprise was how much the course showed its teeth to the 84 participants on hand.
“I was real surprised that the scores weren’t really good from anyone today. The course is in really good shape and the greens are wonderful. I thought there might be a few good ones out there,” Shady Spring head coach Greg Daniel said. “When we started the day the greens were a little wet and had some dew on them. About halfway through the round they got pretty quick.”
The speed of the greens, just enough wind to create havoc and a weekend rain that made the course play longer than normal, made the tournament more like survival of the fittest at times.
Beckley, Shady Spring and Summers County were the best at weathering the storm Tuesday and walked away as champions of their respective classes.
The Flying Eagles shot a three-person total of 243 to top defending Class AAA conference champion Greenbrier East (263) and Princeton (266).
Jonah Willson led the Beckley squad with a 76 which was the lowest round recorded Tuesday. Willson brought home the AAA individual title and the overall low medalist title.
“I think the greens were rolling really, really good, but I kind of struggled on the greens,” Willson said. “I hit it good and I didn’t put myself in positions to do bad things. I hit fairways, but I just didn’t make anything. Mentally I didn’t feel like I played my best, but scored pretty well. There were just a few putts that got me today.”
Freshman Tyler Stover shot 80 and Ian Thompson had an 87 for the Beckley three-person total.
“We felt like we had a good chance to win today. Actually we felt like we left some on the table out there.” Beckley head coach William York said. “The win today is a very big confidence boost heading into regionals next week. They grinded though today and I am really proud of these kids.”
Greenbrier East had high hopes of repeating as conference champions, but it was not a typical day for the Spartans who struggled with distance control at times, putts not dropping and overall ball-striking.
“It just wasn’t our day. No one was feeling it today. I told them it was a good one to get out of our system,” Greenbrier East head coach Doug Bicksler said. “We really wanted to play well here, but if we were going to play bad at one of these tournaments, this is the one to play bad. I was pretty proud of our guys for fighting for the scores that we got.”
The Tigers repeated as Class AA champions, while the Bobcats won the small division for the second year in a row.
“It was a struggle today. We didn’t play our best and nothing came easy,” Daniel said. “Hopefully come Monday at regionals we will be a little bit sharper. The kids didn’t give up and battled through it. They were a little frustrated after the first few hole, but they held on.”
Cooper Ward led the Tigers with 80, while Nate Richmond shot 82 and Tyler Beard shot 84 to account for the team total of 246.
Nicholas County was second in AA and Liberty finished third.
Summers County won easily over second place Pocahontas County by 47 shots and is looking to keep the momentum going for another trip to the state tournament.
“I feel like they played good today. They were able to get up and down to save some big numbers,” Summers County head coach Jared Ewing said. “Obviously putting is going to be hard here because the greens are really quick. I think it was a fair test and it’s probably the closest to the greens that we will see at Oglebay for those that make the state tournament.”
The Bobcats shot a team total of 243 to tie Beckley for the lowest overall team score. Sean Cooper, twin brother Brian Cooper and Xavier Honaker each shot 81.
The AA overall individual champion was Kerri-Anne Cook from Westside who had the second best score of the day with a 77.
While Cook has won numerous titles throughout her career, conference champion was not on that illustrious list. That all changed Tuesday.
“This is my first one and it feels pretty good. I didn’t play as good as I wanted, but still played pretty good,” Cook said. “The greens were definitely tough today. They were quick and got faster towards the end of the round. It was also a little soggy in places with all of the rain we have received lately.”
Cook also added the overall girls individual conference title to her collection of awards.
The Class A individual title went to Sean Cooper who won the tie-breaker amongst his teammates with the lowest back-nine total.
Blake Nixon from Beckley joined his three teammates on the AAA All-Conference team, along with Ian Maynor (Oak Hill) and Dylan Canterbury (Princeton). They were joined by Jake Honaker and Isaac Hutchison from Greenbrier East.
Jack Williams earned AA All-Conference honors along with his Shady teammates. The Tiger foursome were joined by Cook, Braden Brown and Cole Brown from Nicholas County along with Landon Hall from Liberty.
The Class A All-Conference team included Marshall Legg and his three Summers County teammates, Dillon Dunz and Bailey Zickafoose from Pocahontas County, Ryan Stephens from Midland Trail and Peyton Gardinier from James Monroe.
