On the heels of the Lady Colonels golf team finishing second the day before, the Henderson County boys team collected a runner-up finish of their own on Tuesday at Hopkinsville Country Club. Owensboro Catholic won the region championship.
Senior Jake Hayden delivered the Cols top performance, shooting a 75 to finish in a tie for third. He was just one shot away from participating in a playoff for the regional championship.
“I was feeling confident entering Tuesday…I was happy with my score for the most part. The biggest key to my success was my putting,” said Hayden. “I was thrilled with our finish as a team. Since I have been on the team, we have never all gotten to go to semi-state and to do that my senior year feels great.”
Coach Austin Knight spoke of Hayden: “There’s not a kid who works harder than him. He’s out on the golf course every single day. I call him a range rat…I don’t think any of us can take credit for what he’s been doing because he’s been putting in the work.”
Aside from Hayden, the next biggest headline was senior Bentley Simpson who delivered a personal best 76 and 4th place finish.
“I tried to keep him busy and not thinking about his score. We broke it down shot-by-shot. He hit the shots when he needed to…He’s one of our most improved players this year,” said head coach Kevin Payne about Simpson.
Also, counting towards the Cols overall score of 316 were junior Levi Smith’s 82 and sophomore Mason Ranes’ 83. Both golfers have been solid contributors for the team all year.
“Levi had never seen the course. For him to go on that course blind, he hung in there. The biggest thing I preached to him all season…was not making those big numbers,” said Knight of Smith.
“Mason had kind of an off day for him that he could have had many, many doubles, and he salvaged bogeys…That right there was huge for him to save everything he could just to help the team a little bit.”
After a much-deserved day off on Wednesday, the boys got back to work on Thursday, working on skills, specifically short game and chipping. They, along with the girls, will have a chance to practice at Calvert City Country Club on Sunday. The boys will tee off for their semi-state round on Tuesday, September 30.
Knight, who won 2nd region title and played in three state tournaments when he was in high school, knows that it doesn’t matter what’s happened in the regular season at this point.
“Everybody is starting from square one…Anybody that’s there can have a good day of golf and advance. It’s really about who’s on their game, who wants it the most, who keeps their composure, and whose mental game is there,” said Knight. “For our guys, that’s been what I’ve preached all year long and I think they’re really starting to buy in at the right time.”
