BEST AT BEAR TRACE Hall, Gray win City Prep titles
Judging by the individual winners in the City Prep golf tournament Wednesday at The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay, one is glad things went the same way as last year, and one was glad they didn’t.
Cleveland senior Rheagan Hall repeated as the girls’ medalist. Walker Valley senior Parker Gray, who lost in a playoff in 2016, was the boys’ medalist.
In the quests for team titles, last year’s second-place finishers were this year’s first-place teams. McCallie totaled 11-over-par 299 and won the boys’ team championship by six strokes over Walker Valley. The Baylor girls’ 158 was four shots better than the scores posted by Cleveland and GPS.
Hall won last year’s City Prep with a 78, shooting 6 over on the front side, forgoing her driver for the rest of the round and playing par golf on the back.
On Wednesday, the result was the same, but the round wasn’t. Battling the elements, she shot a bogey-free 67 for her best competitive round, punctuating it by making a 35-foot eagle putt on No. 17.
“It was really windy and kind of chilly, which I didn’t like,” Hall said. “I kind of had to adjust to that. I had to figure which clubs to hit into the wind. I was having to figure whether to go up or down a club or hit it a different way.”
Hall’s victory was so predominant, the next-best girls’ score was a 75 by Baylor’s Kyndall Shamblin.
“I hit 12 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens (in regulation),” said Hall, who had a five-hole stretch that included birdies on Nos. 8, 10 and 12. “When you’re hitting greens, it’s really not hard to twoputt, and then make a birdie here and there.”
Gray said he thought of last year’s disappointment in the tournament as soon as he stepped up to the first tee Wednesday. He and McCallie’s Joe Carter, who was held out because of recent back problems but is expected back on the course when the Blue Tornado play this weekend, both had 72 at the end of regulation.
“I think I had six bogeys,” Gray said of last year’s round. “I know I could’ve eliminated at least one of them.”
This time Gray started out 1 over through three holes, but he made only one bogey the rest of the way. And that was to go with six birdies — the last a chip from in front of the green on No. 17 that proved to be the clincher.
Gray said his 68 was his best score at Bear Trace. Cleveland’s Drew Linkous was runner-up with a 70, and McMinn Central’s John Houk was next at 71.
“I just putted really well,” Gray said. “I ended up with 10-to-15 footers a lot, capitalized on a lot of them, and had a couple of tap-in birdies on par 5s.”
McCallie coach Rob Riddle said he thought the course challenged all the golfers, playing at a little more than 6,500 yards for the boys and with the wind gusts factored in. But getting the ball to the green is where the Blue Tornado excelled.
“We had a few too many putts today,” Riddle said. “Our putting average was a little high as a team. That’s where we lost most of our strokes, on the green today.”
Regardless, the Blue Tornado had four golfers shoot in the 70s, paced by Jake Levine’s fourth-place 72 and a 74 from Jake Allstun, who tied Walker Valley’s Dalton Sutton for fifth.
The Lady Red Raiders’ winning team score came from eighth-grader Shamblin and freshman teammate Kelsey Hodge, who shot 83 and finished fifth.
“Kyndall has had a really good year for us,” Baylor coach Gary Partrick said. “Today was just another one of those good days. Kelsey may have had her best ball-striking day. She probably hit it good enough to shoot 75, 76. She struggled with her short game, but it turned out to be good enough.”
GPS’s Hannah Prescott wound up third with a 78 and Signal Mountain’s Lindsey Hollis was next at 81. Boyd-Buchanan’s Lydia Campbell was one of three to shoot 84 and ended up earning sixth place in a scorecard playoff.