Wildcat Invitational
On to the next hole: Coaches, parents and siblings ride in golf carts around the El Dorado Golf and Country Club, but high school students competing in the 22nd Annual Simmons Bank Wildcat Invitational Golf Tournament on Monday were required to carry their golf gear throughout the 18-hole golf course. Boys and girls participated in the annual tourney and represented 10 schools in the state.
Thanks to an eagle by teammate Josh McNulty on his final hole, White Hall’s Grayson Martin came up one stroke short in his quest for medalist honors at the Simmons Bank/Wildcat Invitational last year.
In his return to the El Dorado Golf & Country Club on Monday, Martin sealed his victory in equally dramatic fashion, sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to outlast Texarkana’s Ethan Eppinette to take home medalist honors in the 22nd edition of the event.
“I played really good all day,” Martin said. “I hit my driver all over the place today, but I always found the green with my irons. That was the key to my golf game. I putted really good. The greens are a little slow, but I aimed it straight and hit it firm and got most of them to drop.”
On a day where the traditionally stifling heat and humidity of summer abated, golfers blitzed the El Dorado Golf & Country Club with 17 players shooting rounds of 80 or lower.
Martin and Eppinette were at
the head of the group, each shooting 2-under-par 69s to force a playoff.
Both golfers had pars on the first two playoff holes before Martin’s drive on the par-3 third hole landed to the left of the pin to set up his winning putt.
“It was a lot easier,” Martin said of the weather. “I may have drank one bottle of water today, but I was feeling good all day.”
El Dorado coach Chris Ezell concurred.
“I don’t think you could’ve asked for better weather after the last several years. It seemed like it was always in the triple digits, so that definitely was a win right there,” Ezell said. “Even the kids were making comments that it was so much cooler. It was a nice day for golf, and the scores reflect that. When it’s that hot, most of the time, they start struggling after they’ve been out in the heat, but it was nice today.”
The cooler weather provided plenty of stiff competition.
Hot Springs Lakeside, Benton and Harmony Grove were separated by just three strokes for the top three places for the girls title with the Lady Rams’ score of 295 prevailing.
“That’s why we invited them,” Ezell said of having Harmony Grove at the event. “We want to make this as competitive of an event as we can, and the first, second and third-place teams were within three strokes of each other. You can’t get much more competitive than that.”
However, the race for girls medalist wasn’t as close thanks to Harmony Grove’s Sidney Pigott firing an 80 to win by seven strokes.
Pigott becomes the second Harmony Grove standout to win medalist honors after Christian Barrett won the event in 2014.
Not bad for someone who started playing the game when she entered high school two years ago.
“I really wasn’t interested in golf at that time. I just started when I was a freshman,” Pigott said.
It also helps to have plenty of fortitude.
“I started off kind of rough, but I made a good comeback and got some birdies,” Pigott said. “My drives were a little crazy at first, but I fixed it.”
Bryant repeated as the boys champions thanks to all five of their players shooting under 80 en route to finishing with a team score of 297.
Drew Darbonne had a 72 and Brendon Morton shot 73 for the Hornets. Benton was second with a team score of 305 and Hot Springs Lakeside was third with a 316.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” said Bryant coach Steve Griffith. “All five guys played really well. We were fortunate enough to win here last year, but our score from last year would’ve been fourth this year, so the other teams scored real well today. The course was in great shape and the weather was wonderful. It allowed the kids to focus on golf and surviving the heat like we did last year. Hopefully, it’s a jumping-off place for us to have a good year.”
As far as the Wildcats are concerned, Noah Gaul had a 77 and Shaun York added an 89 for EHS, who finished sixth with a team score of 371.
“Noah was the lone one that qualified for the second day of the state tournament last year, so we’re going to be leaning on him and Shaun York to be leading the way,” Ezell said. “It was Shaun’s first experience playing with some of the better golfers in the state, so I think nerves got to him a little bit, but he managed it.”
Preston Howard (100), Brendan Jones (105) and Jonathan Jones (107) rounded out the Wildcats, and Ezell believes the young players on the team have an opportunity to improve as the season progresses.
“After we lost Pete (Carroll) last year, we’ve kind of been in a building process since then, but I think we’re better this year than what we were last year,” Ezell said. “This team has got pretty good chemistry and they really work well together at practice. That’s one thing that’s really stood out. Even the kids have said that they’ve been competing with each other every day, and eventually that’s going to show later in the season. The first match is a bearing to where you’re at right now, so we’ve got plenty to work on.”
The Lady Wildcats finished fifth with a team score of 313.
Abigail Van Sickle shot a 91 to finish third in the race for medalist honors, while Gabrien Parker added a 99 and Claire Van Sickle shot a 123 in her first match with the Lady Wildcats.
“Those are our leaders this year,” Ezell said of Abigail Van Sickle and Parker. “We added Claire Van Sickle, and she’s still new to golf. She’s only been practicing with us for about a week. We needed to find a third person, and she volunteered for us.”
Ezell added that he is concerned about the lack of numbers on the girls side.
“I think for most schools you go into up and down cycles, and right now, the numbers just aren’t there, but I do know there’s a few coming up in the next couple of years that we’re looking forward to getting,” Ezell said. “This is the lowest number that I’ve had in 15 years, so hopefully we can get some more girls out for golf.”