Battling through high winds, Richmond Academy of Augusta, Ga., rallied Saturday at Fort Benning Golf Course with a 299 to overtake Montgomery (Ala.) Academy by one stroke and win the 36th Hardaway “Larry Gaither” Invitational, one of the longest-running high school tournaments in the Southeast.
Richmond finished with a tournament total of 608 while Montgomery finished at 609.
Richmond substitute coach Joey Hadden said the key to the win was freshman Austin Knox, who despite shooting an 87 in his first round on Friday, turned around Saturday with a 77.
Knox said the difference between his two rounds was his putting.
“Conditions were about the same,” Knox said, referring to the wind, which gave players trouble both days. “I made a lot of long putts. Nothing was falling yesterday, but some of them fell today. (Friday) was one of those bad days. I knew I could get some revenge.”
Joe Lewis of Savannah (Ga.) Country Day shot the low round of the tournament Saturday with a 4-under 68. Lewis was also the tournament low scorer, posting a 3-under 141.
Richmond’s Grayson Sigg, an all-tournament selection, shot back-to-back rounds of 73 to lead the team with a combined score of 146. Blake Hadden and Carson Spears each shot a two-day total of 149.
Montgomery Academy went into the second round with a six-shot lead over Brookstone (Columbus), which finished third with a tournament total of 311. Brookstone coach Marty Durden said his team played well, but not great, and fatigue may have been a factor.
“We’ve played a lot of golf and we’ve traveled a whole lot and I think we’re a little stale,” Durden said. Brookstone’s Parker Derby finished on the all-tournament team with a 2-over 146. Derby shot a 74 on Saturday, which could have been lower had he not suffered two penalties in his last four holes.
“He had some bad breaks,” Durden said. “He called a stroke on himself and he had a bad lie in the bunker on 17.”
While lining up a par putt on the par-5 sixth hole on the Patton Nine, Derby’s ball moved after he addressed it, incurring a one-stroke penalty. Then he had to scramble for bogey on the short par-4 eighth hole after sailing a bunker shot into a hazard behind the green.
Jimmy Beck of Columbus, who fired a tournament record 9-under 63 in the 2010 Hardaway Invitational, finished with a 4-over 148.
Beck also struggled on the Patton Nine, surrendering two double bogeys. His tee shot on the narrow par-3 seventh hit the green pin high, but trickled down a slope off the green and into a hazard. Beck found his ball, but did not have much to work with.
“That’s probably one of the toughest par 3s in the city,” Beck said. “My very first thought when I looked at it was, ‘I can’t go for the pin.”’
Beck said he will always remember his 63 from last year’s tournament.
“It jump-started my golfing mentality,” he said.
