A preview of what is expected to be a highly competitive district girls' golf tournament unfolded in Gainesville on Oct. 21.
Three Beachside High School players posted scores of par or lower at the Hawkstone Country Club and the Barracudas won the Jill Darr Invitational for the third year in a row at 4-over 292, topping Nease by 11 shots. Bartram Trail (330) was third, Creekside (340) fourth and Fleming Island (341), led by individual champion Sophia Moody with a 66, was fifth.
Beachside freshman Lily Wachter had a bogey-free 68 to finish second; senior Alexia Iordonov (71, her career best score) parred her last 15 holes and finished fourth, and sophomore Olivia Connell (72) tied for fifth with Nease sophomore Hazel Peters and Bartram Trail senior Aspen Bikowski.
Moody birdied four of the six par-5 holes at Hawkstone and bogeyed one hole, the par-4 18th.
Beachside, Nease, Bartram Trail and Creekside, who are all 14th or higher in the current FHSAA iWanamaker rankings, will play on Oct. 26 in the District 2-3A Tournament at Eagle Landing. The top two, plus possible at-large teams, will then return to Hawkstone on Nov. 3 for the Region 1-3A tournament.
Moody and the Golden Eagles will play in the District 4-2A Tournament on Oct. 27 at the Palatka Golf Club.
Wolfson, Stanton dominate Gateway
Michael Rattigan of Wolfson shot 67 and Lily Chiang of Stanton 69 to lead their teams to easy victories in the Gateway Conference tournaments at the Blue Sky Golf Club.
Wolfson won the boys tournament at 6-over 294, topping Fletcher by 13 shots. Mandarin (329) was third, Atlantic Coast (334) fourth and Sandalwood (337) fifth. Stanton, with four players among the top six, shot 320 and beat Fletcher by 57 shots.
Rattigan, a senior, eagled the par-5 first hole and never trailed after that. Sophomore Gabriel Lewis of Fletcher (72) finished second, senior Patrick Rose of Sandalwood (73) was third and seniors Gavin Kennedy (74) and Ryland Cross (76) of Wolfson rounded out the top five.
Chiang, a junior, overcame a stretch of three bogeys in a row at Nos. 11, 12 and 13 to play her final five holes at 1-under. She shot 4-under 32 on the front nine and beat teammate Leela Clark, a freshman, by five shots. Wolfson sophomore Akery Paing (76) was third.
A super-senior ace for Brad Rollinson
Brad Rollinson of Ponte Vedra Beach used the occasion of the Florida State Golf Association Senior/Super Senior Two-Man Shootout Oct. 19-21 at Eagle Trace in Coral Springs to ace the third hole during the final round, which was played under a four-ball format.
Rollinson and John Milton of Jacksonville went on to post a 68 and finished at 1-under 215 to finish sixth, five shots behind winners Rokki Rogan of Fort Myers and Bob Murphy of Bonita Springs. Keith Nagy of Jacksonville and Walter Himelsbaugh of Leesburg tied for third at 4-under.
Mark Spencer of Jacksonville and Chris Watson of Fleming Island shot 9-under 207 to tie for fifth in the senior division, four shots behind winners Jon Veneziano of Orlando and Philip Josephson of Coconut Grove.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Beachside girls golf team wins third Jill Darr Invitational in a row