NGAC Golf: Heritage wins NGAC title, Ringgold takes second
A crowd of players, parents and other supporters gathered in front of the LaFayette Golf Course clubhouse shortly before 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
The sun was starting to dip behind the trees and folks were waiting with bated breath to see if the final posted scores of the day would make a difference in the final team standings.
And when LaFayette club pro Eddie Jackson wrote down a 55 for Ringgold’s Moeka Yagi, there came a gasp from the crowd and a yelp from the Blue-and-White as the double nickel allowed the Tigers to finish just a single shot in front of the LaFayette Ramblers and earn the North Georgia Athletic Conference tournament runner-up trophy.
The championship trophy, meanwhile, had long been decided.
With five of its six players putting up scores in the 40’s, the Heritage Generals simply ran away with the conference crown with a total of 167. It was six strokes better than their tournamentwinning score of 173 last May and a full 40 shots clear of their Catoosa County rivals.
“We played pretty well today and we’ve played pretty well all season,” Heritage coach Brian Simpson said. “I’m really proud of the kids. They’ve worked really hard and the victory is all due to them.”
Robert Lyle paced the Generals with a 40 in the championship round, but Lyle had plenty of backup. Cain Stover carded a 41 for the nine-hole round, while Chandler Burns and Carter Bell each had a 43. All four players made the 10-player AllTournament Team.
Even though his score wasn’t even used in the team score, which only counts the four lowest individual totals, Declan Ryan’s 49 was enough to earn
All-Tournament honors as well. Heritage’s sixth player, Reese Hughes, shot a 51 and just missed All-Tournament honors by a single stroke.
Ringgold (207) was led by Jett Bridges, who shot a 48 to earn a spot on the all-star squad. LaFayette was third at 208, thanks in part to low medalist Grant Langford’s 39, while ever-improving Saddle Ridge finished at 209 behind the efforts of All-Tournament players Brady Mullaly (49) and Scott Smith (50).
The other AllTournament award
went to Chattanooga Valley’s Chanse Lewis (43), who led the fifthplace Eagles (221). Gordon Lee (223), Dade County (224), Lakeview (230) and Rossville (250) completed the team standings.
Simpson said while he’s wasn’t expecting such a huge margin of victory, he did have a feeling coming in that his team would play well.
“The way they’ve played and the way they’ve handled things this year, I just can’t say enough about them, other than I’m extremely proud of them,” he added.
Other than the battle for the runner-up trophy, the drama was saved for individual honors. Langford and Lyle played in the No. 1 group of the day and quickly separated themselves from their two playing partners.
Starting their day on No. 1, Lyle carded a double-bogey on each of the first two holes and Langford would take a three-shot lead going into the par-5 fourth. But Langford would have to settle for a bogey, while Lyle made his only birdie of the day, cutting Langford’s lead down to one.
Lyle would give the stroke right back after a bogey on the par-4 fifth and Langford would increase his lead with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 seventh.
While the birdie putt was big, perhaps a bigger putt came one hole later on the par-3 eighth. After initially missing the green with his tee shot, Langford managed to jar a testy six-footer for par to maintain a three-stroke advantage with one hole left to play.
Langford’s only poor drive of the day came on the final hole - the par-4 ninth - as he pushed his drive right and into some trees. After finally locating his ball, he punched out of the rough, but still came up short of the green on his third shot.
Meanwhile, Lyle stuck his approach to inside five feet to put even more pressure on Langford. Lyle slid the birdie attempt just past the cup, but dropped in the two-footer for par, while Langford missed on his bogey putt attempt.
One final short putt would give Langford his only double-bogey of the day, but it was enough to also give him a one-stroke win in the battle for low medalist honors.
“Winning the NGAC individual title has always been a big goal of mine, so this means a lot, the Rambler sixth grader explained.”I really want to win three of them, so I guess this is the first step of accomplishing that goal. I just have to keep playing well next year.”
Andrew Sizemore paced Gordon Lee with a 53, while Ethan Cloud’s season-best 53 paced Dade County. Ashton Hinnard led Lakeview with a 54, and Ryan Grasham shot a 61 to lead the way for Rossville.
The coaches also announced their AllLeague players for the 2017 season.
Each team in the North Georgia Athletic Conference was allowed one pick on the squad.
All-League players included Langford, Bridges, Burns, Hinnard, Mount, Lewis, Smith, Cloud and Grasham.