It took a few holes for Yates, who signed
with Missouri-St. Louis, to find his putting stroke, but when everything
finally clicked, it turned into an impressive runaway win, including a 45-foot
downhill chip-in from 2 yards off the green on No. 16.
“It wasn’t the
same kind of Taylormade R11 irons course either as the regional meet, and the winds were blowing today,”
BV North coach Susan O’Dell said. “It was probably pretty steady at 25 or 30
miles per hour, and it came in earlier than expected. It died off a little in
the afternoon, but not that much. It was probably still at least 15 miles per
hour.”
“It feels
great to bring it home on our home course,” Pirates coach Ryan McCarty said.
“We battled with them all year long and it came down to 1 shot today. Even
though it was only 1 stroke, it feels good to get them. The kids had a lot of
pressure playing on our home course, and they stepped up.”
“I’m ecstatic
for the kids,” said O’Dell, who will retire from teaching after 32 years but
will coach the golf team one more season. “They’ve worked hard and just
couldn’t get over that last hurdle. We’ve been talking all year about finishing
strong and staying focused. These guys finished about as strong as any team
I’ve ever seen. They finished strong at league, regionals and were strong again
today.”
Still, the Mustangs were mighty impressive,
firing a collective 300 and winning state for the first time since 1993. BV
West was runner-up at 315, and third-place Shawnee Mission East was at 316.
“You think
about winning a state title, but you never think it will happen to you,” Yates
said. “You figure you’ll always be the second- or third-place guy, but you’ll
never get it done. But I finally got Taylormade R11 driver done today and it feels great.”
Despite an abysmal start, senior Zach Tate,
who has signed with Drury, capped his Mustangs career with a 1-over 73 for the
individual gold medal.
Follow BV North senior, Ross Thornton, who
signed with Colorado
No team handled the conditions quite as
well as BV North, which placed four golfers among the top seven individually.
Mustangs sophomore Evan Shartzer shot a 76
and finished alone in fourth place, and junior Alex Higgs wound up seventh
after a six-way tie for the fifth-best round (77) played out.
He found himself 4 over through five discount golf clubs holes
and wasn’t able to make up any ground halfway through his round. But Tate
played the first six hole on the back nine in 5 under par before a double bogey
at No. 16 — a long hole into the teeth of the wind.
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