Hunt, King qualify

By Laura Clark

Published: September 24, 2008

Amherst trailed Jefferson Forest by 11 strokes on the season going into the Seminole District Tournament but couldn’t make up that difference on home turf, failing to qualify as a team for regionals in competition at Winton Golf Course on Sept. 22.

“We had to win this,” coach Roy Prior said. “It’s a pretty competitive league, a lot of parity. The pressure of a tournament is different from everyday play.”

The Lancers finished fourth in the tournament and third on the season. Jefferson Forest was the season champion, and Rustburg, an underdog, surged to win the tournament with 321 strokes. Jefferson Forest was second with 325 and Liberty third with 328. The Lancers had 332 strokes.

As the Lancers anxiously awaited the final scores, senior leaders Tyler Hunt, Colton King and Clinton Arrington expressed their disappointment in how they finished.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen. I just think we ran out of magic,” Hunt said. “We had high expectations coming into this season. All and all, I think we did pretty well.”

The Lancers were optimistic this season after graduating just one top-six player from the 2007 District Tournament championship team.

Despite the team finishes, the season isn’t over for two Lancers, Hunt and King, who both shot an 11-over-par 82 to qualify in the final spots for the Region III tournament in Harrisonburg Oct. 6.

Both King and Hunt had shaky front nines. King shot 9-over 44 on the front, shooting bogey, double bogey, bogey on the first three holes. Just last week, the two shot 36s in a nine-hole home match against Jefferson Forest.

“I was chunking my irons,” King said. “We all expected to come out and break 80. Nerves got the best of a lot of us. A lot of people got it together on the back and settled down.”

King shot a 2-over-par 38 on the back nine with two birdies. One of those was hole 15, a 351-yard par 4. King hooked his drive into the tree line right of the fairway, but recovered with a soaring upshot that fell one foot from the pin.

Nerves aside, all the players dealt with dual challenges from a constant breeze and freshly aerated greens that were bumpy and hard to read. Hunt had been the consistent leader for the Lancers the latter half of the season, and said his play Monday was uncharacteristic. He finished without a birdie.

“I just never could get anything going with the putter,” Hunt said. “For the most part, I felt like I struck the ball decent, but I didn’t putt. I just tried to keep grinding out and playing my game.”

Arrington, the Lancer’s fourth seed, won his foursome with a 13-over-par 84.

“We all had problems with the green,” he said. “I just couldn’t’ get into a groove. I had a little trouble pitching and chipping.”

He recovered from a 45 on the front nine to shoot a 39 on the back, finishing with a birdie on hole 18, a 539-yard behemoth.

“I hit a good second shot and was probably 30 yards out. I hit a good pitch in, finally,” Arrington said.

His 84 wasn’t enough to qualify for the regional tournament. Teammates Casey Campbell and Tyler Creasy also shot 84s. Sixth-seed Nick Gruber shot a 95. The top scores for the day came from Liberty’s Clay Carimi and Rustburg’s Chad Wisecarver. Both shot 6-over-par 77s.

“We’re seven strokes behind the winner,” Prior said. “That’s not bad. Any given day you could have a 7-point swing.”