Fewer high school golfers were swinging this year because of a conflict with a soccer tournament.
Still, competition was tight as 26 students participated in Whitehorse’s high school championships Friday at Mountain View Golf Club.
Finishing second overall, FH Collins’ Scott Meredith and Adrian Hawkings hit a three over par to finish first in the Grade 8 and 9 division, despite having the same score as Heiko Nyland and Gibson Pearson, from Vanier.
“When you have a tie … you do what they call a count-back,” said Vickie Dawe, the tournament’s organizer, explaining why Meredith and Hawkings were first.
“You go to the (scores) on the first hole, number 10, and they were both tied. And then you go to number 11, and Scott and Adrian got a three on that and Heiko and Gibson got a four.”
“Today was a tough round,” said Meredith. “I haven’t golfed for a week, so I was kind of rusty at the beginning. I wasn’t putting too good.
“Luckily I had Adrian, who was a good help. He was good at putting, when I messed up he always showed up with a good putt.”
Playing only the back nine in the two-player best-ball tournament, Meredith and Hawkings bogied on the 15th hole and then ran into further trouble a couple holes later.
“I hit it in the bushes and Adrian topped his,” explained Meredith, speaking of the 15th. “We also struggled on 17. We had decent drives, we just couldn’t do anything else.”
Ian Wintemute and Brad Gustafson, of Porter Creek, finished on par to take the Grade 10, 11 and 12 division, a massive 12 strokes up from their closest division competitors.
The two Porter Creek students played a tremendously consistent game, hitting one bogie, one birdie and seven pars in their round.
“I chucked my shot short to the right and then (Gustafson) had a good one, but it was a bit short — five yards (from the green),” said Wintemute, describing their bogie on the 13th hole. “So we chipped on — I had a bad chip again, but he had a nice chip: about eight feet (away from the cup). But we both missed and took the bogie.”
Before this year’s tournament, scores from each team were added up to determine the winning school.
This year, however, putting more focus on the individual (or pair of individuals, as the case may be) golfers, not their schools, were given the titles. This prevented players from being held back by lesser golfers on their team.