By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
Lake Monticello golf pro Mark Marshall has confirmed that Fluvanna County High School sophomore Killian Donnelly recorded an astonishing eight under par score of 64 on Friday, Aug. 21, playing from the regular men’s white tees.
Marshall said that he has no records as to the course record at the Lake Monticello course for golfers playing from the white tees. This is not surprising as course record scores are normally only from the back tees, and in tournament play. The back tees at the Lake are the blue tees which are very difficult and rarely played. Marshall advises that in his tenure at the Lake Monticello course, 64 is definitely the lowest score he has ever heard of from the white tees. Donnelly played on the number one spot for the Flucos last year as a freshman. This year, due to the COVID-19 crisis, fall sports, including golf have been postponed and hopefully will resume in late winter.
In the past few weeks, the golfers at Lake Monticello have been competing in three Match Play championships. In match play, each hole is a separate competition. If a player beats his or her opponent on the first hole, he or she is one up. If the players tie on the next three hole the one up status continues to apply. If the player who lost the first hole then wins two holes in row, he becomes one up. If one player is ahead by 4 with three holes to play, the match is over and the winners is said to have prevailed 4 and 3.
There were three separate Match Play competitions, an open competition from the white tees with no handicaps taken into account; a senior competition from the gold tees, with no handicaps taken into account, and a handicap competition from the gold tees. All of these competitions were very close. In the open competition from the white tees, Stan Leap defeated Jarred Williams by a score of three and one. This means that going into the 17th hole Leap was up by two, and he won the 17th hole to be ahead by three with one to play. Williams is also a Fluco golfer. He is a senior this year and played in the number two slot for the Flucos last season.
In the senior competition, with handicaps not taken into consideration, from the gold tees, it was Stan Leap winning again. This time he topped Jim Beach. They were tied after 18 holes and Leap won on the first extra hole. In the handicap competition from the gold tees, John Stenz and Paul Schmidt were tied after 18 holes. As they are good friends, they decided to stop and assumed that they would be co-winners. Alas, it was not to be. They were advised that like other sports such as baseball and basketball, which have extra innings and overtime periods, there are no ties in golf tournaments. They were told that their match was not over and if they declined to complete it, they would both be disqualified. As a result, Schimdt announced they was withdrawing and Stenz was declared the winner.
On Saturday, Aug. 22, the 18 hole and the 9-hole couples competitions were held at the Lake Monticello golf course. Ten teams competed in the 18-hole tournament and only four in the nine hole competition. In the 18-hole competition, the winners in the net competition were Rich and Barb Barringer who recorded a gross score of 93, for a net 0f 71. In second place was the team of Karl and Lorraine Bergstresser with a gross of 87 and a net of 71. This tie was resolved per the rules of the competition by starting with the scores on the 18th hole and working backward until one team’s score was better than the others. Third place in the net score went to the team of Debbie Underwood and Bud Nelson, who came in at 87 and 73. Winning the low gross competition was the team of Mike Hanson and Sarah Johnson with a score of 77. In the nine-hole competition the winning net score was posted by the team of Phil Skeps and Cathy Morrell with a 32. The winning gross score was a 45 posted by Edwina and Tery Heyer. All winners received store credits at the pro shop.
