Preps

Golf: Team qualifiers offer few surprises

Two from Nature Coast reach regionals as individuals, one after a 5-team playoff.

By DAVID MURPHY
Published October 17, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - When it came to the teams who qualified for regionals, there was nary a raised eyebrow at the district match at Saddlebrook on Tuesday afternoon.

The individual scoring was another story.

On a day in which powerhouses Saddlebrook, Citrus and Zephyrhills fielded seven of the top 10 individual scores, the final individual qualifier was decided by a five-team playoff between a group of golfers that finished their round with 85.

Nature Coast's Anthony Rule won the final spot on the second hole of the playoff, joining the three teams and individual qualifiers Randy Hodges Crystal River and Adam Kollar (Nature Coast).

Citrus' Nick Brothers, one of only five players who broke 80, took medalist honors with 71. Zephyrhills' Rick Briggs finished fourth with 78 despite playing what he described as a poor round.

"I've shot in the 60s on this course and I've shot in the 80s," Briggs said.

Briggs would have qualified individually, but his teammates handled their business as well and the Bulldogs finished in third with 342.

Saddlebrook won the team title, shooting 309 to finish two strokes ahead of Citrus.

Hodges and Kollar each shot 84 to take the first two individual spots (the top three teams and top three individuals advance). Rule, meanwhile, won a five-person playoff that included teammate Dayne Dukes, Wiregrass Ranch's Dylan Larsen, Bishop McLaughlin's Mark Doucette and Sunlake's Donald Eubanks.

David Murphy can be reached at dmurphy@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1407.

[Last modified October 16, 2007, 21:00:32]