Sweet Home’s boys finished ninth in a field of 11 teams at the 4A State Golf Tournament May 17-18 at Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell.
Marist won the team title, shooting 309-324-633 over the two days. Pendleton was second (340-322-662), followed by Cascade in third (342-339-681), followed by Marshfield (361-327-688), St. Helens (347-352-699), Madras (352-343-705), La Grande (355-351-706), Seaside (365-347-712) and Sweet Home (366-371-737). Estacada (377-374-351) and Mazama (403-409-812) rounded out the team scoring.
Emerald Valley. – Julie Harvey photo
Junior Trent Harvey led the Huskies, finishing 13th as an individual, shooting 83-85-168. Sophomore Evan Malabago shot 94-92-186,sophomore Henry Gainer 95-95-190, senior Lynkin Royer 94-99-193 and sophomore Blayne Schuster 102-102-204 for Sweet Home.
Xanh Quang of Seaside was the individual champion, shooting 6-over 75-75-150.
State was “fun,” Harvey said, though he noted that Emerald Valley was not a preferred course for his team.
“I feel like we kind of all under-performed, definitely. I think there were some nerves. I think if it was a different golf course, we would have performed pretty well. But all in all, I think it was a great experience.”
He said his team enjoyed the by-the-book feel of the tournament’s organization.
“It was definitely different, having an event run by OSAA. It was just much more professional – not in a bad way, but it was just different having it run by an organization.”
Harvey, who is by far the most experienced player on the team, said this has been a good year for the Huskies.
“The season, as a whole, was great,” he said. “ We made it to state with sophomores who were on JV last year. I expect that they will have the same amount of participation in the off-season that they did last year.
“It was a great experience for all of us, especially, having a younger team, getting them state experience early.
“We had two who were brand new to competitive golf and they performed out of their shoes.”
