4 Cassville golfers in top 10 at home event

By Kyle Troutman [email protected]

The Cassville boys golf team was a stroke away from sharing the title at the Cassville Invitational on Thursday.

The Wildcats turned in a team score of 327, one back from Monett’s 326. Cassville tied with Neosho, Mt. Vernon took fourth with a 328, and Nevada was fifth with a 331.

Individually, four Wildcats cracked the top 10, with Cheney Kelley and Kaleb Artherton tying for 3rd with 80s, and Kyle Brown and Daichi Kezuka tying for 9th with 81s.

“Getting four in the top 10 is very exciting, especially for a player like Kaleb that was playing in his first varsity individual event of the year,” said Clayton Bagby, Cassville golf coach. “Hopefully we can all keep improving on those scores and put us in a good position come districts on our home course.”

Bagby said three golfers consistently used their knowledge to avoid big numbers, and a fourth started rough but steadied the ship.

“Between Cheney, Kyle and Kaleb, those three were able to avoid high numbers on the day, make a bunch of pars and take advantage of the home course knowledge,” Bagby said. “Daichi had slow start being 6 over through three, but then ran off nine straight pars to turn it into a solid round overall.”

In other Cassville results, Tyson Bohmke was 13th with an 82, Dennis Craig was 20th with an 84, Aiden McBroom was 35th with an 88, Will Brooks was 61st with a 97, and Trevor Brookes was 64th with a 98.

Bagby said as the season continues, each shot has its own significance.

“Every shot matters,” he said. “We fell 2 shots short of winning the tournament, so while we are very proud of the second-place finish, we are going to be back at our home course on May 7 hosting 18 teams for districts, including Monett and 10 others that were there Thursday. 

“It is going to be very competitive tournament and we have to make sure we are staying focused for 18 holes to give ourselves the best shot at qualifying as many people as possible, or the team, for state competition.”

With only the top five golfers on the team participating in the postseason, Bagby said his athletes are competing day in and day out to nail down one of those spots.

“We have a lot of competition within our team for those five that will get to represent us that day,” he said. “Kyle and Kaleb both finished top 10 in the tournament, but they came into it as our sixth and seventh players overall, so there will be a lot to shake out before that comes along.”

Cassville has tournaments in Ozark, Carthage, Willard, Marshfield and Monett before the Big 8 Tournament. The Class 3, District 3 Tournament in Cassville is on May 7, and the Class 3 State Tournament is May 18-19.