Western Nebraska Observer - Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Tom Southard wrote an introduction in last week's Observer for the story below that he wrote in 1993 about Kimball's new golf state champions. Also presented below, after that story, is a follow-up that Tom wrote as Kimball was enjoying the good life with its champs.

Kimball's high school golf team won the state Class C boys championship at Hastings Tuesday, the first state win ever by local golfers.

The team captured the Class C District championship at North Platte May 12 and then won the state championship in an extra hole playoff at Lochland Country Club in Hastings.

At state Kimball had to win a one hole team playoff from Geneva after both teams shot 351 over the same course where PGA pro John Daly played on Monday. Daly put on a clinic for the golfers attending the state tournament.

In the playoff, Kimball shot 19 and Geneva 21 to give the Kimball club the win.

Brown and Wentz tied again as both shot 84 with Brown finishing 9th and Wentz 10th for top ten individual honors.

Brian Webb shot 90, Jim Barrett 93 and Brian Frederick 94 to round out the Kimball scores.

At the Class C-6 district played at the North Platte Country Club, Kimball won by 12 strokes over runner-up Grant as the Longhorns fired a 337 with Grant at 349 and Chappell third at 350. The top two teams qualified automatically and Chappell also was a qualifier for the state tournament by virtue of a Wild Card system.

Brock Wentz and Cris Brown shot rounds of 80 to finish in a three-way tie with Wentz finishing 6th and Brown 7th in the final individual standings.

Jim Barrett shot 88, Brian Frederick 89 and Brian Webb 91 to round out Kimball scoring.

•

Here's Tom followup report as Kimball was enjoying life with its state champs.

Kimball HIGH'S state champion golf team is still receiving their credits. Nice to see the marquee at the American National Bank displaying the fact that we are home of the state champs.

Four Winds golf pro Gerry Fitzpatrick and his wife hosted a dinner for the team, and others involved this past week, and I know a lot of the civic clubs are wondering what they can do to show their appreciation.

I talked with Gerry Fitzpatrick about the possibility of erecting signs on the outskirts of town claiming Kimball as the home of the 1993 Class C State Golf Champions and we agreed that would be a great project for one of the local civic clubs.

With only three state championships in the record books as far as we can determine, it's not something that happens very often and I think we should flaunt it all we can. Something special for Coach Bill Wallace and technical supervisor Gerry Fitzpatrick would be nice too!