BCHS Boys Golf in Early Season Preparation for Region

Sun, 08/20/2017 - 11:16am — John Embry

The Butler County Bears Golf Team took to the links last month by participating in the Christian County Invitational at Western Hills in Hopkinsville. “My intentions for our boys is to get them more and more prepared to compete in 18-hole competitions,” Coach Moore explained. “Your average person is wore out riding in a cart after 18 holes, while these young men walk tough courses packing their own bags. That’s right, no caddie either.”

In less than a week after that, the team traveled to Dawson Springs to play in another Invitational. BCHS was represented extremely respectable. Cole Johnson fired what very well may be a school record. “I can’t think of another boy’s golfer to shoot better in an 18-hole event,” Coach Moore exclaimed. Cole’s 76 was good enough to finish fourth-place out of over 70 players.

Clay, Cole’s twin brother, has been representing the squad consistently well, too. He has carded less than 90 in his last few tournaments dating back to last year. “Over my six years as coach, I have had a few golfers come in near the mid-80’s; however, what Cole and Clay are doing goes beyond,” Moore boasted proudly of them.

Competing in their third tournament in less than two weeks this past Saturday, the Bears went to Windward Heights in Hancock County, which made for a long day. The nine-hole course got a little bottle-necked-up on the second nine. Without the Johnson twins, seventh-grader, Andrew Gill led the team with a score of 96.

“Andrew and Jonah Swift, who is a sixth-grader, are two young men whom are going to be hard to handle in years to come. They are already breaking bogey-golf on nine holes competing in match play,” Moore elaborated. Andrew and Jonah have been on the golf team for five or more years. They both play in competition prior to the season starting, also.

Justin Hudnall, the only other senior along with Cole and Clay, has been working diligently to improve his game. “His drive, approach, and short-game are bound to all come together soon. Eliminating the ‘bad hole’ is another area that he is concentrating on overcoming,” Moore said of Justin’s game.

Two juniors, Matthew Gill and Bailey Hunt, are competing with freshman, Zac Johnson, and eighth-graders, Drew Daugherty and Adam Rogers for the fifth man on the varsity team along with Cole, Clay, Andrew, and Justin holding the top four. “Jonah would round out the top five but unfortunately KHSAA will not allow a sixth-grader to play high school sports,” groaned Moore.

Moore has been giving equal opportunity to all those competing, but not one individual has taken control. “I play one and the others play better; so, I reward one of them, and another steps up to produce the best score in the next round,” Moore clarified.

Out of five nine-hole matches, Cole has been medalist (lowest golfer between all schools competing) once outright. He has tied for it in two others. Clay has been medalist with the lowest nine-hole score on the year, carding a 36 at Ohio County. Clay has tied for medalist once, also.

The Bears record is 4-6 on the young season, with three of those loses being only a few strokes behind the better team that day. The team also shot a 169 against Owensboro this past Monday, which was the first time one of Moore’s teams has been in the 160’s in four years. “That fourth score seems to allude us at times,” Moore enlightened. “However, I truly believe we can be closer to 160 by year’s end.”

The team will go to Madisonville to compete in an Invitational Saturday, August 19^th. Madisonville Country Club is where the Region Tournament will be held. Moore is taking the Johnson twins, Andrew Gill, Justin Hudnall, and Matthew Gill. “Matthew has shot under 120 in both invitational tournaments he has participated and he brings maturity, both mentally and physically,” Moore stated about his difficult decision. Moore asserted that there is a more than a month of golf left and the starting five could still change before the Region Tournament.