Course familiarity is often a key component to a successful round of golf.
When it comes to the Jones Course at Oglebay Park, course familiarity becomes vital.
Tuesday morning the famed Wheeling layout will once again be the site of the 2024 state high school golf tournament where Shady Spring (AA), Greenbrier East (AAA), Midland Trail (A) and Nicholas County (AA) will all battle for the championship in their respective classes.
The Tigers will be making their sixth straight trip to the Northern Panhandle and are coming off of a strong showing in the AA Region 3 tournament.
“We have played a couple rounds up there and we will get one, maybe two practice rounds in before the tournament,” Shady Spring head coach Greg Daniel said after the regional win. “Hopefully we can pick up right where we left off today.”
Shady Spring finished as the Class AA runner-up last year and has three golfers back from that highly successful team.
Senior Jack Williams, along with juniors Tyler Beard and Cooper Ward are back to lead the Tigers and they will be joined by freshman Grant Winkler.
Williams played in the state tournament for the first time last year, while Beard and Ward will be making their third start on the Jones layout.
“I am so excited to get back to Wheeling,” Williams said. “We went up there and played a couple of rounds earlier in the year and I played really solid.”
Beard was the low medalist in the AA Region 3 tournament and earned all-state honors last year with a seventh-place finish.
“In our group chat (the morning of the regional), it wasn’t, Oh, let’s go out there and get to states. We wanted to win by a lot and we all played really well,” Beard said. “That ups the confidence going into states.”
Ward finished in the top-15 last year and has also had a strong year. The junior standout tied Beard for the regional low medalist honor which Beard won on the second playoff hole.
“Hopefully we can play even better in Wheeling,” Ward said after the regional. “We are definitely excited for it and have a good chance to win.”
Even though Winkler is listed as a freshman, his abilities are well above his age. Winkler has also been battle tested in various tournaments over his young golf career.
“We played there earlier in the year. On that course, if you miss, know what your miss is. You can’t be missing in two different places,” Winkler said. “It is a great course and it will be a lot of fun. Hopefully we can bring that trophy home.”
Nicholas County is making its second straight trip to Wheeling.
Senior Maddox Smallwood and junior Braden Brown played last year, while Evan Pendergast and Drew Johnson will be making their state tournament debuts.
“For us, it is an honor to make the state tournament. We wasted a lot of shots near the green last year. We are hoping to get that cleaned before we turn them lose on Tuesday,” Nicholas County head coach Tom McGirl said. “They have put in a lot of work and played a lot of different courses this year. Hopefully that will pay off for us.”
Greenbrier East has been a frequent visitor to the state tournament as well, going to Wheeling for the third year in a row.
The Spartans are led by sophomore sensation Isaac Hutchison, along with senior Isaac Cantrell, junior Nate Dolin and sophomore Seth Napier.
Hutchison is the reigning AAA Region 3 individual champion and was the low medalist at the Coalfield Conference Tournament. Hutchison will be playing in Wheeling for the second straight year.
“I have put a lot of work in this summer and my game is really coming together,” Hutchison said. “My ball striking is getting good and the putting is also coming.”
Greenbrier East qualified for the state tournament with a runner-up finish at the AAA Region 3 tournament at Little Creek Golf Club.
“We started off well and then we kind of plateaued, but I think everybody is finding their groove again. This is a good time for everything to be clicking,” first year Greenbrier East head coach Jemel Samuels said. “Some of my other guys are stepping up where before, everybody was only talking about our No. 1 and No. 2 golfers.”
Cantrell has the most state tournament experience for the Spartans. Tuesday morning will be the third time he has played the Jones Course. Dolin played last year and Napier will be playing his first state tournament event.
Midland Trail won the Class A Region 3 title led by three freshman Landyn Cordle, Van Wood and Jacob Brown, along with sophomore Cameron Thomas.
Youth will be a factor for the Patriots, but Justin Barnhouse’s crew is a confident bunch.
“The kids thought process is they are going to win,” Barnhouse said. “It comes from inner-team competition. My freshman think they can go out there and beat Tiger (Woods). They are that confident.”
Rocky Frye from Montcalm and Andrew Addair from River View were the two individual qualifiers in Class A from Region 3.
Frye was the individual runner-up last year, just one shot back, nearly erasing an eight-shot deficit from round one. Addair also played strong in Wheeling last year with a 15th-place finish.
Hunter Moore from Independence and Josh Lafferty from Liberty qualified for the AA individual tournament. Both will be seeing the Jones Course for the first time.
Round one tee-times are below:
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