Sometimes the best team doesn’t win. It certainly appears that was the case last week for the Wimberley girls’ golf team.
In a sport that requires four individual scores to make up a cumulative team total, Wimberley only had three players in the Llano Invitational Golf Tournament meaning they could only compete as individuals instead of as a team. Had a fourth player been available, it seems they would have had a good shot at winning since the three Wimberley players placed first, second and third overall in the tour nament.
Hallie Adare won the tournament shooting a 72. Peyton Smith placed second with an 89. Madison Barbee finished third with a 91.
“I am excited about the girls’ team,” Head Coach Dane Saucier said. “Those three are playing as good as they have ever played. they had a really good game last week… Hallie is playing exceptionally well right now. Hopefully she can keep that up. She has a chance to get out of the region and get to state if she can keep putting those scores together.”
And moving forward, the team score shouldn’t be a problem. With the girls’ basketball sea son coming to an end, Brooke Burcham and Madelynne Rivera will be joining the team.
As for the boys’ team, they didn’t have the same problem. Wimberley walked away with a win shooting a total 322 as a team, six strokes ahead of the second place finishing Brownwood.
“This is the lowest we have shot as a team in a long time,” Saucier said. “The conditions were very tough with 30 mph to 40 mph wind gusts.”
Jaxon Donaldson placed third overall individually with a 74. Bryson Young and Kellar Cudney both shot personal records with a 79 and 82 respectively. Gage Pruitt rounded out the team scores with an 88. Also playing for the Texans were Cody Stoever, 92, Nolan Waida, 94, and Ethan Sharp, 96.
Of the five players competing for the team, as opposed to individually as medalists, four of them are sophomores. Gage Pruitt is the only senior.
“Obviously, we are really excited about those guys and what they can do,” Saucier said. “They have bought into playing golf and they are reaping the rewards of it. The sky’s the limit with those guys. Hopefully they continue to get better. It helps having Jaxon out there shooting a low score. Hopefully the other guys can feed off of that.”
Due to the President’s Day holiday, the boys’ tournament was Valler Creek in Blanco was pushed to Tuesday this week after the Wimberley View’s time of press with the girls’ playing on Wednesday.
Wimberley will host their home tournament at Quicksand Golf Course next week with the girls teeing off at 10 a.m. on February 28 and the boys teeing off at 10 a.m. on March 1.
