White Plains 3rd after ‘toughest round’
- Updated: April 20, 2015
Wildcats play with heavy hearts; Hewitt-Trussville, Archer lead
Hewitt-Trussville’s Logan Archer checks his scorecard after shooting 2-under-par 70 at Cider Ridge Monday. On the cover, White Plains players Dustin Travis, Layton Bussey and Trevor Lane play together to complete their round.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — Trevor Lane called it probably the toughest round of golf he’s ever played in his young life. By the end of it teammate Layton Bussey was “emotionally pretty spent.”
The White Plains golf team returned to the course Monday in the midst of an emotional 72 hours in which they experienced the euphoria of winning the first boys county championship in school history and the heartache of losing one of their own in an early-morning car wreck.
Under the most trying of circumstances they posted a team score of 308 to place third after the first round of the Oxford-Gadsden Invitational at Cider Ridge Golf Club. They trail leader Hewitt-Trussville by 18 shots and second-place Westbrook Christian by four.
Wildcats senior Dustin Travis, the newly crowned county medalist, shot 1-under-par 71 and is tied for second. Hewitt-Trussville’s Logan Archer leads at 70.
Archer, a former Oxford player familiar with the subtleties of Cider Ridge, has finished second here each of the last two years, losing both times in a playoff.
The Wildcats played the round with heavy hearts. Early Sunday morning Keaten Beam, a 16-year-old sophomore on the girls golf team whose brother Drennen plays for the boys, was killed when the Jeep she was driving left the roadway on Highway 9. Her funeral is Wednesday.
There was some thought to the team withdrawing from the tournament, but the players wanted to tee it up and win it as a tribute to their friend and teammate.
The school held a memorial assembly Monday morning in which coach Marcus Harrell, Lane and several members of the girls team, including county champion Layne Dyar spoke. Tournament officials allowed the team to join the round in progress and complete it together under the watchful eyes of non-competing markers.
In addition to Travis, the Wildcats counted Layton Bussey’s 77, Dylan Griggs’ 78 and Lane’s 82. Bussey called it a “tough round.”
“Honestly, I had no idea what to expect coming here,” Harrell said. “We had a very emotional last two days, very emotional. I think they hung in there as best they could.
“Everybody handles things differently, but it was definitely tough for everyone.”
Hewitt-Trussville coach Chad Dahlke was commended the Wildcats for coming to play.
“I know it’s probably some of them do it to honor her, some of them do it just because it kind of gets their mind off it a little, but it’s tough,” he said. “We lost a (football player) the Friday before two-a-days and I remember going through that with our guys then. It’s tough. Everybody’s lost someone at some time or another and sometimes it’s better to get back to some normalcy and what you’d normally been doing.”
Tournament officials explained the situation to the rest of the field before the 9 a.m. shotgun start and held a moment of prayer before sending the players on the course. Hewitt-Trussville, Oak Mountain and James Clemens began their round without a fourth and were joined by the Wildcats after the others had completed 11 holes.
Once the other teams completed their round, the Wildcats paired up in a twosome and threesome and finished some two hours after everyone else.
“It’s been a rough two days, but I’m really glad we got to play,” Travis said. “We really wanted to play in this tournament. It’s a big tournament for us, but we really wanted to play in it to win it for Keaten.”
The players will wear pink wrist bands in Beam’s memory for the rest of the season. They plan to embroider “#KeeKee” on their caps and carry commemorative bag tags on their gear similar to the ones they had when this event was called the Kelsey Goodwin Memorial.
“We always have these bracelets to remind us, but it also reminded me I’m out here to win this for her,” Travis said. “That’s what I’ve got to get done.”
He got off to a good start in that regard, shooting one of only three under-par rounds of the day. He got there with a closing birdie on No. 15 to pull into a tie with Hewitt-Trussville’s B.J. Scott.
Scott and leader Archer both birdied 4, 5 and 6 in their rounds, but Scott bogeyed his last hole to drop out of a share for the lead. Archer hit approach shots inside two feet on 5 and 6, his first two holes of the round.
The tournament concludes today at Twin Bridges Golf Club in Gadsden, which just happens to be where Archer and the Huskies won the sectionals last year.
“It’s here for me to win it,” Archer said. “I’ve got two trophies sitting side-by-side that are both second place and I’d like to have one sitting right in between them that’s first. This used to be my home course. It’d be nice to actually capitalize and win the tournament.”
Oxford-Gadsden Invitational
At Cider Ridge GC
Team scores
Hewitt-Trussville 290
Westbrook Christian 304
White Plains 308
Athens 310
Bob Jones 315
Oak Mountain 316
Donoho 324
Buckhorn 340
Southside 340
Clay Central 340
Oxford 345
Gadsden City 347
Hokes Bluff 364
James Clemens 391
Munford 448
Top 15 Individuals
Logan Archer, H-T 70
Dustin Travis, WP 71
B.J. Scott, H-T 71
Charley Parvin, H-T 72
Parker Brown, WC 73
Reid Baggett, Ath 73
John Catanzaro, WC 75
Harrison Martin, WC 75
Brett Batchelor, BJ 76
Andrew Fikes, Ath 76
Reed Love, H-T 76
Ross Svensen, Don 76
Zach Holton, OM 76
Layton Bussey, WP 77
Harrison Mink, OM 77
Bradley Hindsman, Sside 77
Carden McCay, H-T 77
Team results
HEWITT-TRUSSVILLE (290) – Logan Archer 70, Carden McCay 77, Charley Parvin, 72, Reed Love 76, B.J. Scott 71.
WESTBROOK CHRISTIAN (304) – John Catanzaro 75, Harrison Martin 75, William Wethington 84, Matthews Williams 81, Parker Brown 73, J.P. Pirani 78.
WHITE PLAINS (308) – Dustin Travis 71, Trevor Lane 82, Layton Bussey 77, Nathan Gilbert 91, Dylan Griggs 78.
ATHENS (310) – Andrew Fikes 76, Will Phillips 82, Reid Baggett 73, Justin Vincent 79, Michael Weed 82.
BOB JONES (315) – Brett Batchelor 76, Austin Chandler 80, Andrew Cook 79, Shawn Cromartie 80, Evan Shelton 82.
OAK MOUNTAIN (316) – Harrison Mink 77, Riley Fowler 81, Matthew Kelly 89, Zach Holton 76, Connor O’Gorman 82.
DONOHO (324) – Jacob Lecroy 78, Ross Svensen 76, Jack Svensen 81, Robert Clauson 95, John Hutto 89.
BUCKHORN (340) – Tyler Davidson 78, Billy Hooper 87, Caleb Battle 89, Noah Kenny 86, Chaise Allen 92, Stephen Hundley 110.
SOUTHSIDE (340) – Bradley Hindsman 77, Hayden Lee 86, Kaleb Yancy 81, Luke Boyd 97, Brock Lawley 96.
CLAY CENTRAL (340) – Riley Sanford 83, Parker Bailey 84, Peyton Davison 86, Nick Watts 87, Blair Bailey 91.
OXFORD (345) – Tyler Putnam 78, Joey Salonia 80, Clayton Esty 120, Jacob Vaughn 95, Will Turley 92, Jeremy Allen 83.
GADSDEN CITY (347) – Trey Perry 89, Gavin Deck 87, Staley Dawson 93, Seth Perry 88, Davis Brown 83, Gage O’Bryant 93.
HOKES BLUFF (364) – Max Jackson 80, Hunter Jackson 103, Justis Brewster 82, Heath Stewart 111, Cole Contris 99.
JAMES CLEMENS (391) – Landon Miles 78, Brandon Roberts 106, Saurav Archry 95, Eli Crossen 112, Brandon Fry 112.
MUNFORD (448) – Devin Strickland 95, Landon Scott 113, Chris Haynes 118, Austin Davis 122, Landon Ashworth 131.
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