Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Kimball golf coach Chad Wise, left, congratulates Jordan Greenwood on his season-opening win last week at Bayard. Greenwood shot a 75 to win top individual honors in the tournament. Kimball finished second as a team.
Jordan Greenwood got his 2015 High School Golf Season off to a fantastic start as he took top honors at the Bayard Tournament shooting a 38-37=75 to take medalist honors by 7 strokes over John Opela of Mullen, who was runnerup with his round of 82. Coach Chad Wise had nothing but praise for his talented young sophomore, but said, "Actually, Jordan had a few problems with his putting and could have shot even lower."
As a freshman last year, Greenwood opened his high school golf at the Bayard Tournament where he shot a 96 and did not make the top ten medal group. After the opening tournament, Jordan brought home a top ten medal every tournament, including district and state, an outstanding accomplishment for a freshman. He worked hard at his game all the off-season, playing several tournaments, and has worked hard this spring to show he is ready.
Jordan and team mates shot a team score of 382 to finish second in the team standings with 13 schools involved. Bridgeport won the team title with 374, followed by Kimball with 382, Crawford 395, Chase County 413, Creek Valley 418, Hemingford 442, Hay Springs 451, Garden County 470, Gordon-Rushville 510, and Mitchell 526. Bayard and Morrill and did not field complete teams.
The balance of the top ten behind Greenwood and Opela saw Eric Stevens-Bridgeport 86, Todd Widener-Bridgeport 88, Brett Godfrey-Creek Valley 91, Taylor Janicek-Bridgeport 92, Darin Knobbe-Chase County 93, Austin Rowley-Creek Valley 94, and Tyler Jennings-Chase County 94.
Kimball's Michael Ferguson finished just 1 stroke out of the medal group with his round of 45-50=95. Kyle Spicer shot 52-53=105, Kole Bush 55-52=107, and Spencer Shields 56-64=120.
Coach Wise had opened up the competition for spots this week although he said, "Jordan and Michael are assured varsity spots." The Easter break from school didn't keep most of the Kimball golfers from working on their game, especially Greenwood who took his five day break in Arizona playing golf. He came back to different weather at the Bayard Tournament where it was kind of cold and misty early with the sun coming out later. It wasn't windy and not too bad of a day for Nebraska April weather.
Wise said, "I thought we played pretty well for our first tournament. We still need a lot of work on our short games. Kyle (Spicer) was way over his practice round average and I expect him to shoot much better." A very busy week for the Longhorns this week as they were at Mitchell this past Tuesday, are at Bridgeport today (Thursday), are at Imperial on Saturday, and next Tuesday (April 21) they are at Morrill.
Lots of golf to be played. Start time at all of the above mentioned tournaments is 9 a.m.