Franklin Regional junior 3rd at blustery qualifier
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Palmer Jackson is making a habit out of finishing third.
After a third-place finish at the WPIAL Class 3A individual golf finals, the Franklin Regional junior shot a 1over 73 to come in third in the PIAA Western regional qualifier Monday at Tom’s Run Golf Course in Blairsville, Indiana County.
“Obviously I didn’t play that well,” Jackson said. “The course was playing tough and there was a lower score out there than my 73 and I couldn’t get the ball in the hole on the greens and I couldn’t really hit the greens either, but that will get me through and that’s all I wanted.”
Jackson finished two shots off the pace as Erie Cathedral Prep junior Pat Kelly carded the only sub-par round of the day with a 1-under 71 to lead the pack to the PIAA finals, which are Monday and next Tuesday at Heritage Hills in York, Pa. Clouds loomed over the course throughout the event, and the temperature dropped to near 50 degrees at the start of the day. Plus, blustery conditions made it difficult on all the players.
“It was really windy and I saw 8-10 [mph] in the forecast, but it was more like 20 and it was cold,” Jackson said. “I dressed appropriately so I wasn’t cold, but the ball wasn’t going as far and I played probably 5 yards farther on an iron shot and, when I was into the wind, I clubbed up.”
He wasn’t the only one who felt the effects from the coldest dayof the season to date.
“I had a little trouble with the cold at first and had a couple of iron shots come up short,” Central Catholic junior Jimmy Meyers said. “I had a little problem with my driver, but I putted really well and I chipped pretty well and that made up for it.”
Ofthe 12 Western qualifiers in the Class 3A division, 10 were from the WPIAL, including Jackson and Meyers. Central Catholic, which won the WPIAL team title last week, will have two representatives with Meyers and runner-up Neal Shipley, as will PineRichland, which will send sophomore Donnie Professori andjunior Rico Sciulli.
Two players who won’t be moving on are Moon senior Chris Sabol and Latrobe junior Brady Pevarnik, who missed the cut. Sabol, who beat Pevarnik in a playoff to win the WPIAL individual title, shot an 81, while Pevarnik posted an 80 that was one stroke off the cutoff (79).
North Allegheny junior Caroline Wrigley knows all too well the feeling of winning the WPIAL title and missing the cut in the Western qualifier as it happened to her in 2016. This year, though, the Furman recruit finished tied for third with a 5-over 77, three shots behind first-place Lauren Freyvogel of Pine-Richland, to earn a spot in the PIAA finals for the second time in three years.
Greensburg Central Catholic junior Abby Zambruno didn’t win the WPIAL Class 2A individual title, but she made up for it a bit as she posted a 4-over 76, a personal best on the course, to earn her third trip to the PIAA finals.
Riverside sophomore Skyler Fox finished in a three-way tie for third, but the two-time WPIAL Class 2A boys champion wasn’t playing to win, just to get through to the next round.