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Playing with 'Cats star is big thrill for Coogan

By DAVID MURPHY
Published October 13, 2005

In the clubhouse after Monday's Class 2A, District 6 match at the Dunes Golf Club, Cameron Knight put mustard and ketchup on his hot dog just like everyone else.

He ordered a soda just like everyone else. And he slipped into his post-match basketball shorts one leg at a time, just like everyone else. But if you listen to Central junior Alex Coogan talk, Knight hardly is an everyman golfer.

"I was excited all week waiting to see if I was going to play with him," Coogan said after he watched the Wesley Chapel senior shoot a 67 and claim medalist honors. "I've read so much about him."

Knight, the state champion last year, has a game that is above the high school level and worthy of the scholarship Florida State offered him in March. Coogan, meanwhile, is a junior who became Central's No. 1 player only after 2004 Hernando/Citrus Golfer of the Year Austin Grey sustained a knee injury during soccer season. Coogan won the Hernando County match two weeks ago, but there were stars in his eyes when he was a part of Knight's threesome Monday.

"It was an experience," Coogan said. "You are trying to beat him, but it is fun watching him play. He's a great player. It kind of made me nervous."

Coogan struggled on the front nine, shooting 6-over 42, but recovered on the back nine to card 37 and finish with 79. "It was terrific experience for (Coogan)," Central coach Gary Morton said. "And the thing I want to stress about Cameron Knight is, yeah, he is a great player, but he is a fine young man."

Though it was fun for Morton to watch Coogan and Knight play, Central would not have qualified for the regional had it not been for the 72 that Tommy Bastien fired. A sophomore who didn't play in many matches last year, Bastien put together the best 18-hole round of his competitive career, shooting 35 on the front to finish with the day's fourth-best score. The Bears needed all of it, finishing just three strokes ahead of Lecanto for the third and final regional spot.

"I was a little nervous," Bastien said, "but we've all played this course before."

CLOSE, BUT... For the first time in Nathaniel Brown's three years as coach, Hernando didn't advance out of its district, but the Leopards will be represented in the Region 3 match Tuesday.

Junior Derek Pebler will be heading to Haile Plantation in Gainesville after he qualified by firing a 74 at the Class A-9 match Monday.

"I really have no clue (how he'll do)," said Brown, whose Leopards were three strokes out of third place.

"I know what he is capable of, but I don't know the course all too well," Brown said. "He's always been capable of shooting good scores. Right now he's sort of kind of blossomed at the right time."

Nature Coast Tech's No. 1 player, Mike King, will join Pebler. King shot 78 to grab the third and final berth.

[Last modified October 13, 2005, 01:11:19]