Golf: Saints Claim 4A Title In Playoff

 STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE Canon Cothran of Shiloh Christian chips onto the ninth green Tuesday during the 4A state championship golf tournament at Valley View Golf Course in Farmington.
STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE Canon Cothran of Shiloh Christian chips onto the ninth green Tuesday during the 4A state championship golf tournament at Valley View Golf Course in Farmington.

FARMINGTON -- Kord Offenbacker could have taken the easy approach and just lagged a putt close to the hole and tapped in for a bogey.

The Shiloh Christian senior instead stood over the ball, and ran in a 5-foot par putt that clinched the Class 4A state boys golf championship on Tuesday at Valley View Golf Course.

4A Boys State Golf Tournament

At Valley View Golf Course, Farmington

Team Scores

  1. Shiloh Christian^233*

  2. Arkansas Baptist^233

  3. Fountain Lake^254

  4. Pocahontas^264

  5. Malvern^266

  6. Heber Springs^267

  7. Clinton^268

  8. Gentry^276

  9. Lonoke^287

  10. Monticello^313

  11. — Won one-hole playoff

Individual Scores

Hunter Higginbotham, Arkansas Baptist^75

Canon Cothran, Shiloh Christian^75

Ty Johnson, Clinton^75

Bradley White, Arkansas Baptist^76

Noah Smith, Dewitt^76

David Lundstrum, Shiloh Christian^77

Hunter Thompson, Fountain Lake^77

John Edgin, Ozark^77

Chris Stewart^Prairie Grove^77

Mark White, Gentry^79

Kord Offenbacker, Shiloh Christian^81

Hayden Lassiter, Warren^81

Evan Rosenweig, CAC^82

Zac Leming, Malvern^82

Taylor Harvey, Arkansas Baptist^82

Offenbacker and Shiloh Christian sophomore Canon Cothran each parred the par-4 playoff hole to defeat Arkansas Baptist's Hunter Hickingbotham and Bradley White in a playoff for the team championship. Hickingbotham and White both bogeyed the hole, which meant even a bogey by Offenbacker would have still given the Saints the title. He left no doubt with the par putt.

"It's such a pressure-packed thing in a playoff like this," Shiloh Christian golf coach Jordan Cox said. "You're taking both scores and adding them together, and for those guys to make par, both of them, what a huge deal."

The Saints and Arkansas Baptist each carded 233s to easily outdistance themselves from the rest of the field. The next closest team was Fountain Lake with a 254.

Offenbacker and Cothran were expected to lead the Saints, but the bigger story on Tuesday was the play of senior David Lundstrum, who has battled a shoulder injury and was not expected to even play. But Lundstrum's shoulder held up and his sizzling 77 proved to be huge.

"Just unbelievable," Cox said of Lundstrum's round. "We talked about this all year. Colton Eldridge and David have been battling back and forth all year. Colton helped us win the conference championship. But he came in and said, 'Coach, David is playing better than I am.' And he was.

"So David got the spot, and today he shoots a 77. He's a senior and earned all-state. There's not a better story out there. That is as good as it gets."

Cothran shot a 75 to share medalist honors with Hickingbotham and Clinton's Ty Johnson. All three will advance to the overall tournament next week.

Cothran used the playoff hole as sort of a redemption after he double-bogeyed his final hole of the day. The Saints' number one player said his putter was hot most of the day and he leaned on his short game to stay in contention, although the final hole was a tough break.

"I hit a good drive, but it went a little right into the bunker," he said. "I tried to hit an iron out of the bunker and hit it fat, and it left me about 170 (yards) short. I tried to hit a 5-iron from there and hit it into the creek."

From there he scrambled to get out with a double-bogey, but that likely cost him the outright medalist title. He bounced back from that to par the playoff hole to help the Saints win the title.

Hickingbotham, also a sophomore, said he had an up-and-down round, and missed two putts that were within two feet of the hole on both No. 4 and No. 11.

"I made four birdies, but I had some bogeys and a double, so just all over the place," he said.

Shiloh Christian's team title is all the more impressive considering its No. 1 player, Kyle Robinson, left the team at the start of the season to be home-schooled.

"That was three weeks into our season when that happened," Cox said. "I talked to our team last night and I said, 'Look, we had change thrown at us and I asked you guys to rise up and step up and take a different role.'

"I told them that regardless of what happens today, they had done that. They've done everything I asked them to do."

Sports on 10/08/2014

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