The county golf race is shaping up to be a fun one this spring. All three Montgomery county teams were in action Saturday as Southmont hosted their annual Southmont Invitational at the Crawfordsville Country Club. At last weekends Danville Invite both Crawfordsville and Southmont shot a 349 and tied for eighth place. This time around the two county rivals would battling each other for the top spot and when the scores were all tallied up it would be the Athenians coming away in first place with a team score of 343 while the Mounties would finish four strokes behind with a 347.
Luke Ranard would earn medalist honors with a 78 for CHS while Landon Timmons was third individually with an 81. Tanner Gilland fired an 87 and Hayden Jeffries rounded out the scoring with a 97. Landon Hurt also shot a 102 for the Athenians.
“Our guys gutted it out today against the wind and just kept playing great golf,” Crawfordsville coach Tom Perkins said. “Luke got off to bad start and was four over after the first four holes, but he responded very well. Timmons was solid all day and Tanner shot another solid score of an 87 in his first Southmont Invite as a freshman and he wasn’t happy with it. I’m thrilled to death with how we played and our program has came along way and we you can see that we have guys who are willing to work hard and get better. We’ve been playing in this invite for years now and this is our first win so I’m just super proud of the guys.”
Southmont’s Nolan Allen finished just a single stroke behind Ranard with a 79 to finish second individually for the Mounties. Luke Tesmer fired an 86 with Harrison Haddock and Ty Elles both carding 91’s. Carson McKinney shot a 97 to round out the scoring. Mountie coach Bill Whalen who always holds high standards for his team and also always as a number he want’s his teams to shoot, was disappointed with his team’s score in their on their own course Saturday.
“There’s no one on our team that should be shooting in the 90’s,” Whalen said. “They’re more talented than that but if they continue to shoot there we’re going to make some changes. I told the guys I wanted them to shoot 339 or below that today. We had some guys who were in good positions on the front then just fell a part on the last three to four holes for no reason. We can’t overcome a bad hole right now. If they have a double or triple bogey that just sticks with them and I told them until you can let that go, you’re going to struggle. You’re going to have a bad hole, that’s just golf. The game is just as much of mental game as it is playing it.”
North Montgomery was playing their first 18-hole match of the season and ended with a solid fourth place finish with a team score of 389. Freshman Neal Jeffrey led the Chargers with an 89 while Hayden Turner carded a 94 for the Chargers. Alex Chapman and Haze Kashon both ended the meet shooting 103’s and Drew Norman rounded out the scoring with a 104.
First year Charger coach Bob Ryker overall was a little displeased with his team scores but also knew the lessons his kids can take away from their first 18-hole match of the season.
“First off I was really pleased with how Neal Jeffrey played,” Ryker said. “For him to come out to a difficult course and as a freshman to shoot an 89, he played well beyond his level today. Some of the other guys didn’t play up to their level and I’m a little disappointed in the overall score. We just have to continue to work on things from here and we played a tough course and some tough competition.”
Fountain Central ended the invitational with a score of 425 as Wesley Jackson led the way for the Mustangs with a 95. Jaylin Payne was second on the team with a 102, Carter Merryman a 113, Kameran Krug a 115, and Koby Wolf fired a 118.
Before the season began Perkins let the Athenians come up with their own goals for the season. One of those goals was to win the Southmont Invite. The Athenians know the talent on the team can take them very far this season and they’ll use this as another stepping stone for the rest of the season.
“The next item on the agenda is to win the Covington Invite when we go there,” Perkins said. “We’ve beefed up our schedule to where we playing on the same courses as the best teams in the state and that’s what we need to do for us to see what we need to do to get better.”
