Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The Kimball High Boy's Golf Team with one final pose at the conclusion of the 2016 Class C State Tournament held at the Kearney Country Club Golf Course. Left to right, Andrew McCloud, Zane Anthony, Coach Chad Wise, Izaac Reuter, Dillon Wise, Jordan Greenwood.
Jordan Greenwood, second from left, after receiving his runner up medal for finishing 2nd in the individual standings.
Freshman Dillon Wise follows through on his tee shot during state tournament play at the Kearney Country Club Golf Course. Dillon finished 18th individually and just 3 places out of a state medal. His opening round on Day-One was a 2 under par 33!
Jordan Greenwood is consoled as he fights off a bit of disappointment for not winning the 1st place medal at the state tournament, but 2nd from the field of 89 individual golfers is a huge accomplishment. That's dad, Kenny, on the left and coach Chad Wise on the right.
Kimball's Jordan Greenwood finished just 2 strokes from winning the 2016 Nebraska Class C Boy's Golf Tournament that took place this week at the Kearney Country Club Golf Course. The outstanding junior picked up his third state golf medal with his best finish yet, winding up runner up for the championship with his two day total of 151 with Brook Klinetobe of Stanton winning the medalist honor with his score of 149.
Jordan showed great composure and mental control as he battled the field of 89 golfers and the challenging Country Club hilly course that tested the state's best. On the opening day he got off to a rather rough start with three straight bogeys, but battled back to shoot 37-39=76 leaving him in sixth place. His most memorable shot of the round was driving the green on the 331 yard par four 15th hole and sinking a 15 foot putt for Eagle.
He had some troubles on the front nine of day two also,coming in with a 40 and 5 strokes over par, but he showed no quit what so ever as he demonstrated his various skills in making recovery shots from difficult situations to score 3 birdies on the back nine and shoot 35 for 1 under par going 40-35=75 on the back nine leaving his two-day score card reading 76-75=151. He moved ahead of five golfers who were ahead of him after day one!
Despite his best finish ever at the state level, Jordan showed a bit of disappointment as he walked off the final green as he had played his heart out to win it all, just like his coach, Chad Wise, had instilled in his players from the start with his pre-seaon quote of "We are here to win". After talking with his family, his coach, team members and friends who made the trip down, the smile came back on as he realized just what he had accomplished. When he received the runner up medal at the awards presentation, the smile was quite big, and the talented young golfer was perhaps feeling glad the grueling two days of walking the hills, fighting off the ants, and the muggy and hot temperatures was over. He was looking for something cold to drink and a place to sit.
This was Greenwood's third straight trip to the state tournament and the first trip to state with his team. His freshman year he wound up 11th, last year he finished ninth, and this year all the way to second! Indeed it was time to smile. With one more year to go he can become a four time state medal winner.
While Jordan stole the show for Kimball High, the remaining four members of this year's Longhorn team also played well as all four were playing in their first ever state tournament. Believe me, there was a lot of pressure on these three young freshmen and a lone sophomore. All five Kimball team members will be back next year!
Freshman Dillon Wise came within three strokes of finishing in the top 15 medal group as he wound up 18th. Dillon was one of only two on day one to score under par on the front nine recording a 33 with 7 pars and 2 birdies and went 33-45=78 to finish in the number ten spot on day one. It was his season and career best competitive round of golf and what a time to do it! On day two he dropped off a bit but still shot 43-42=85 to finish out 78-85=163.
Zane Anthony, another freshman on the Kimball Team, had a consistent round of 42-42=84 on day one followed up by 44-44=88 on day two leaving him at 84-88=172 to tie for 35th.
Izaac Reuter, yet another freshman, went 48-48=94 on day one and 42-52=94 on day two to go 94-94=188 finishing 72nd.
Andrew McCloud had an experience he would rather forget but will chalk up as a learning experience. On day one he had a score card signing miscue that caused him to be disqualified as far as day one went. The competitive young sophomore who earned his way into a varsity spot after recovering from a basketball injury that hampered him early in the golf season, failed to enter one hole score and turned in the card without catching the error. He came back on day two to shoot 44-47=91.
As a team, Kimball shot 332-339 to finish sixth from the field of 15 full teams. There were, of course, additional individual state qualifiers. Grand Island Central Catholic won the team title with 630, followed by Lincoln Christian 647, Stanton 651, Ord 654, Lincoln Lutheran 664, Kimball 671, to round out the top six of the field of 15 schools.
There was a nice turnout of Kimball fans to follow the Longhorn golfers and the weather was good, but got quite warm by days end both days. There was a bit of a problem in securing carts for some of the older fans who also had medical releases from their respective doctors, but state officials did try to work through the problems and get carts to those who needed them. Coach Wise knew his players could have performed better, but also knew this was a huge test for his young team. He is already looking forward to next season and another shot at winning it all. He praised the play of Greenwood and his son Dillon and all of his players. Speaking for all of Western Nebraska, GOOD JOB Kimball!
(Note: We will recap the season next week).
