Wheeling – After the final scores were tallied on Day 1 of the state high school golf tournament played on the Jones Course at Oglebay Park, Shady Spring head coach Greg Daniel referenced the words of one of golf’s greatest players.
“It is like Jack Nicklaus said, you can’t win a golf tournament in the first round, but you can sure can lose it.”
Tuesday afternoon, the Tigers did not shoot themselves out of the tournament.
In fact, the boys from Raleigh County placed themselves in a prime spot to bring home a Class AA state championship.
Shooting a team total of 239, Shady Spring took a 13-shot lead over second place Wheeling Central. Chapmanville is in third place, 24 shots behind the Tigers.”
“I like where we are at, don’t get me wrong, but we left some shots out there,” Daniel said. “We need to come out and play smart tomorrow.”
Cooper Ward led the Shady assault Tuesday with a 75 and is tied for first-place in the AA individual race with Luke Tiu from Wheeling Central.
“Overall it was a pretty solid round. The front nine I parred 1-8 and bogeyed nine,” Ward said. “The back nine I went par, birdie and doubled 12. Parred 13, bogeyed 14 and birdied 15. Then I doubled 16, so it was just a little back and forth.”
On a day where there were no players in red figures over all three classes, Shady Spring placed all four golfers in the top-five for the day in AA.
Tyler Beard is in third place, followed by Jack Williams and Grant Winkler who are tied for fifth place.
“We have played a lot of golf up here the last three years, but not as much as (Wheeling) Central has,” Daniel said. “They are getting a lot more comfortable with the course, but there is just danger on every shot here. There is trouble, short, long, left and right. The greens are really slick and have a lot of break to them.”
Ward and Beard have both played the Jones Course for three straight years and have a better feel for the brutal layout.
“I feel a lot more comfortable here now,” Ward said. “The last two years, I was scared of the course, but now it is just like another course.”
While 13 shots may seem like a big number, in team golf, numbers can change rapidly from hole to hole.
“We can’t look too far ahead, we still have a seven-hour round of golf left tomorrow. We have a long ways to go,” Daniel said. “We are not celebrating anything right now. Hopefully we can come out tomorrow and play to what we are capable of.
Maddox Smallwood from Nicholas County is tied for 10th-place heading into the final day of competition.
Cabell Midland also holds a 13-shot advantage in the AAA battle followed by Hurricane. Senior Jack Michael for the Knights holds the individual lead with the lowest round of the day, a two-over par 73.
Greenbrier East sophomore Isaac Hutchison had a solid day firing a 79 and is tied for seventh place.
The Class A title is a wide-open race with five teams within 15 shots of first round leader St. Marys. Gilmer County is second, one-shot behind the Blue Devils. Wahama is 10 shots off the pace, while Charleston Catholic is 12 shots out and Petersburg is 15 shots behind the leader.
The individual race amongst the small schools is just as interesting with 13 players in contention.
Rocky Frye from Montcalm finished runner-up last year and sits in a three-way tie with Will Gruse from Charleston Catholic and Grant Roush from Wahama. Roush bested Frye by one shot last year to win the Class A title with Gruse finishing third.
Andrew Addair from River View is tied for 10th-place, eight shots back.
The championship round starts Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m.
Complete results can be found at:
https://wvga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/wvga24/event/wvga2499/contest/15/leaderboard.htm?fbclid=IwY2xjawFysZZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHWi4KSCE6Fy_XJ4b7sQfFMJY0WoCy9lzPhdtcNUSdxu2iA11_Se2C0MnoA_aem_DzVo3V7qBDozwGYS8xtw8Q
