It wasn’t a single club in his bag Matt Percy credited for his Class 3A regional golf title Monday at Lake Shawnee Golf Course.
Instead, the Central Heights standout knew exactly what his biggest weapon was. His mind.
“Mentally, is where I saved most of my shots,” Percy said. “You had to be so strong mentally out there to know that even if you made a big score on one hole you had to recover because you can’t let the lead to two or three big scores in a row.
“It was definitely a battle out there. Probably some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever played in.”
Despite playing Monday’s regional in a steady downpour, Percy survived the elements and the field with a strong performance. He limited his big scores to a trio of double bogeys, but mixed two birdies and enough pars to battle his way to a 7-over 77 that was good enough to win by five strokes over Rossville’s Gabe Marney.
Only four golfers in the field of 37 players broke 90 — Marney (82), West Franklin’s Austin Gilkey (85) and Osage City’s Ryan Haskins (89) joining Percy — and only eight broke 100. Osage City captured the team title with a 381, while West Franklin and Rossville tied for second with 387s, West Franklin earning the second team berth for state via a fifth-player tiebreaker.
Percy admitted he wasn’t exactly thrilled seeing the conditions in which the regional would be played. But he also quickly developed a game plan to get through with a round that wasn’t too far off his season stroke average of 73.7.
“You just have to know it’s going to be a grind out there and change your mind set from trying to attack the course to taking it one shot at a time and if you hit it to the middle of the green and make par you’re in good shape,” Percy said. “When I saw the weather wasn’t going to be good, I thought sneak something in around a 75 and see where that puts me. The conditions were worse than I thought and a 77 was pretty dang good.”
After early an early double bogey on No. 2, Percy played his next five holes in 1-under, sticking a punched 6-iron to three feet on the par-3 No. 6. The round started to get away when he made two bogeys and two doubles in a five-hole stretch to finish the front and start the back, but he played even over the final six holes, offsetting a bogey on 15 with another birdie on 16, coming up just short of an eagle on the par-5 hole.
Marney struggled at the start of each of his nines, playing his first three holes on the front in four over and his first three on the back in three over. But eight pars on the remaining 12 holes kept him from a bigger number.
Haskins and Duncan Fort finished 4-5 to lead the Indians to the regional title. Marney and fellow Bulldawgs Andrew Hudson (95) and Kole Davoren (95) earned individual state berths for next Monday’s meet at Salina Municipal Golf Course.
CLASS 3A REGIONAL
At Lake Shawnee GC (par 70)
Team scores (Top 2 qualify for state)
Osage City 381, West Franklin 387*, Rossville 387, Council Grove 437, Silver Lake 448, Perry-Lecompton 490.
Individual medalists
1. Percy, Central Heights, 77; 2. Marney, Rossville, 82; 3. Gilkey, West Franklin, 85; 4. Haskins, Osage City, 89; 5. Fort, Osage City, 91; 6. Hudson, Rossville, 95; 7. Powelson, Wellsville, 95; 8. Davoren, Rossville, 96; 9. Lindstrom, Silver Lake, 100; 10. McDowell, Osage City, 100.
Individual qualifiers — Percy, Central Heights, 77; Marney, Rossville, 82; Hudson, Rossville, 95; Powelson, Wellsville, 95; Davoren, Rossville, 95.
*–Earned state berth on fifth-player tiebreaker
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