Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Mounties victorious
Rogers High grabs team title at Bulldog Invitational.
SPRINGDALE — Rogers High’s Andrew Fakult watched his chip shot lip out on the 18th green Wednesday.
Fakult settled for par after coming dangerously close to carding the eighth birdie of his round. The 14-yearold freshman finished as the boys’ medalist at the 2017 Chambers Bank Springdale Bulldog Invitational at Springdale Country Club, shooting a 5-under 67.
His performance helped the Mounties (286, -2) grab the team title as well. Rogers carded the lowest team score in tournament history, becoming the first school to finish under par.
“He had a wonderful round,” Rogers boys golf coach Marcus Alexander said of Fakult. “He said his wedge game was saving him a lot, and he was making putts. He hits (his tee shots) in the fairway and in play, so all around he had a great round today.”
Fakult birdied four of the first six holes on the front nine, including a run of three in a row on holes four through six. He added three birdies on the back nine to card a personal-best 67.
“It’s really exciting for me to prove to myself that I could shoot that kind of score,” Fakult said. “The course was beautiful, the greens were in great condition and the fairways were plush. I loved the course.”
Alexander said he was thrilled to see his team play so well in the first tournament of the season. Along with Trevor Brunson’s 2-under 70 and Spencer Eiserman’s 73, the
Mounties owned the three lowest scores of the day.
Coach Tim Aynes’ Springdale Har-Ber squad finished second overall Wednesday with a team score of 318. Har-Ber’s Cole Bishop, on the par-3 13th, had the shot of the day with his first hole-in-one. Bishop’s 8-iron shot landed within six inches of the hole, he said.
“It felt great,” said Bishop, who shot an 82. “I was kind of
in shock that it happened, so I didn’t celebrate at all. I was just kind of looking at it, like, ‘Did that really just happen?’ I was really happy.”
As a whole, Bishop didn’t play as well as he wanted, but was glad Har-Ber finished well as a team. Kade Keith shot the Wildcats’ low score with a 3-over 75. Bentonville High, which shot 321 as a team, was led by Jonathan Sanchez’s 77.