ELK BOYS WIN OWN TOURNAMENT...

With a score of 296 (12 over par), the Elk City Boys team won their Invitational on April 11. That Berek Dyson was low score on the team, speaks volumes about the depth of this team: Joby Gray, Keegan Hall, Logan Gore and now Berek Dyson, have been the top score in the team in the last few tournaments.

Elk City was followed by Weatherford (304) and Clinton (307) within the bigger schools in the tournament. In the smaller schools group, Hinton won with a score of 325 and was followed by Burns Flat with a score of 335.

The individual scores were as follows: Berek Dyson 72; Joby Gray 73, Logan Gore 75, Keegan Hall 76, Cameron Marcum 77 (he played in the J.V. team) and Brock Walker 79.

Berek's determination and refusal to give up under pressure when things got tough in front of a local crowd, kept his focus and patience, came back with some late birdies to earn a solid score that netted him the top spot on the team, and 4th overall. Congratulations!

Long hitting Keegan Hall had a shaky start with a double bogey (out of bounds on #2), bogey on his first two holes, and although he steadied his game, his game never really "caught fire"; and neither did Joby Gray's, who fought a shaky driver all day.

On the other hand, Logan Gore, had the best start of all, and at one point reached 2 under par, but somehow, the freshman's concentration waned and he finished with a solid, but a likely personally disappointing, 75.

As I write this, I realize that there must be an obvious personal disappointment among some of the team members about their personal performance at home, where they really wanted to come up not only with a win for the team, but a better personal score in front of a local crowd. My advice? Don't worry, golf is just a game, and if you sit down and think that even on a bad day, the team came with a win, things should not look so bad for the rest of the season.

In closing: with Cameron Marcum's solid performance, which follows other good finishes, it looks like coach Mantle will be having a "problem" other coaches would really like to have: "I only have five spots, and 6 worthy players, who will be my top five?" Your choice coach!

This is the fourth win from Elk City in 5 starts....