Taylor fires 78; Pats fourth
Published 3:50 pm Thursday, September 29, 2016
LINCOLN COUNTY’S Roland Taylor led the Patriot golf team with an 18-hole round of 78 Tuesday in the Boys’ Region 4 Tournament at Bardstown. Photos by David Asher and Nancy Leedy
The Lincoln County boys’ golf team repeatedly put up impressive scores this season. Scores strong enough to have head coach Scott Montgomery anticipating a possible state-qualifying team finish at regionals and coaches to consider Lincoln one of the top contenders for the title.
The Patriots got a glimpse of what it would be like to qualify for state in Tuesday’s Region 4 Golf Tournament. But in the end, they found themselves far off the pace, finishing fourth out of 20 teams at the Maywood Course of the Bardstown Country Club.
Only the top two teams qualify for state and Lincoln shot a team score of 338, placing the Patriots 23 strokes behind second-place Campbellsville, which carded a 315.
“We shot a 338, 315 was second and 310 was first. That just shows you how hard the course was because 310 wouldn’t even have gotten second last year,” Montgomery said. “I was sure hoping that that (Lincoln making state) was going to be the case. We had potential to shoot those numbers. Today it just didn’t happen. We didn’t make it but we sure beat a lot of teams by a lot of strokes. There were teams shooting over 400.”
Seniors Roland Taylor, Ryan Montgomery and Parker Monhollen, who took turns stepping forward to lead the team throughout the season, were at the top of Lincoln’s scoring Tuesday. Taylor led the way with an 18-hole score of 78, Montgomery was the two-man with an 83 and Monhollen carded an 85. Wyatt Hon rounded out the team scoring with a 92 for the 338. Jared Long was also on course for the Patriots, finishing with a 97.
“We just didn’t have kids scoring as well as they have,” Montgomery said. “Parker had been shooting better, Ryan had been shooting better. Roland had shot better. And Wyatt had too. We all didn’t quite play as well as we could. It was a very, very difficult course to play. The scores were nothing like they were in the past. Everybody could have shot a little bit better. Even if we had shot a little bit better we still might have come up a tad short.”
Montgomery said the strength of Tuesday’s top two teams made qualifying more difficult. Taylor County, which won with a 299 last year, repeated as regional champion by posting a team score of 310 to beat crosstown rival Campbellsville.
“Taylor County and Campbellsville were awful good teams,” he said. “Taylor County is one of the very top teams in the state. They have a legitimate shot of winning the state.
I said on the radio this morning that I thought 315 would get you to state on this course and that’s exactly what it was.”
Knowing the difficulty of the Maywood course, Montgomery made sure to give his team a few extra looks at the course.
“We played four times before today on the course,” he said. “We don’t usually get to play that many times on a course before region, but I did get them up here to practice on this course.”
Lincoln junior Chris Johnson also got the opportunity to test the course Tuesday. Due to many teams not having full teams, additional players were invited to participate. Johnson had an 89 in the tourney.
Taylor’s Cooper Parks carded the day’s low round at region, taking medallist honors with a 70. Logan Peterson fired a 77 for the Cardinals, Hayes Mason had an 81 and Jake Kehoe rounded out the team scoring with an 82.
For Campbellsville, Alex Doss was the low man with a 74. Layton Hord followed with a 78, Connor Wilson shot an 80 and Myles Murrell finished with an 83.
The three low scorers not on the state-qualifying teams advance to state as individuals. Those making the cut were Jared Southerland of Danville with a 73 and Hayden Elder of Anderson County and Nash Henning of West Jessamine, both with rounds of 74.
Tuesday’s regional was the final tournament Lincoln’s four seniors – Taylor, Montgomery, Monhollen and Long – would be on course with Hon, a sophomore, and Johnson.
“When I was talking to them before the match today, I almost had to stop talking to them because I was fighting back tears,” coach Montgomery said. “Just a good group of boys. We’ve had a lot of fun. I’m extremely proud of them. They had a great season. We actually went in as a second or third seed in the tournament. It comes down to one day (region). You have to do it on one day. We gave it a shot. It just wasn’t our day.”
While Tuesday was the final match for the Lincoln team, the four seniors will get to play one more tournament together as they participate in the KGCA All-Star Tournament Oct. 15 at Nevel Meade Golf Course in Prospect.
