The Statesboro Blue Devil golf team made the most of home field advantage as they blew away the competition at the Area 1-AAAAA golf tournament with the boys firing a 307 to easily capture the team title. Completing the domination Blue Devil senior Ford Berger captured low medalist honors with an even par 72.
“I’m very proud of all of the guys for the way they played, especially on the front side,” siad Statesboro coach Dr. Glenn Bailey. “We need to probably be a little less aggressive on some of the holes, but overall we played solid as a team.”
The entire team blistered the front nine, turning at even par. Leading the way was Berger who shot a three under 33. Berger stumbled a bit on the back nine, but was able to regain some momentum over the last few holes to end up shooting a 72.
“Ford was his usual steady self,” Bailey said. “He can grind it out when we need him. I noticed he had gotten to two over on the back, but obviously he fought back and finished strong.”
“I felt like I really played well on the front nine,” Berger said. “I struggled a bit on the back, but really only made one costly mistake. I’m excited to move on to state and get another chance on the same course we almost won a couple years ago.”
The Blue Devils round of 307 was actually 24 strokes better than second place Harris County. Ware County was the third, and final team to advance to the state from the area with a round of 332.
“We actually shoot even better than that on this course regularly,” Bailey said. “We shot in the low 290’s this week, so that score was actually a little higher than I expected. We will definitely take that score though, but there are a few things we need to work on before heading to state.”
On the girls side of things the lady Blue Devils fell short of making their third straight trip to the state. Savannah Barefoot led the way for Statesboro with a round of 90 which ended up being one shot short of being able to advance to the state as an individual.
Veterans took top honors for the girls with a round of 243. The girls only have two teams advancing to the state, and Ware County was the other as they had a team total of 253. The low medalist on the girls side was Veteran’s Mailey Buzzell who shot an amazing round of three under 69.
Next up for the Blue Devils they will advance to the state tournament in Carrollton which will be on the same course many of the same players played two years ago as they missed out on the state title by five strokes.
“We have to really learn to think a little more on that golf course,” Bailey said. “We have the ability to win the state with the talent we have, but we need to make some better decisions out there with the type of competition we will be facing.”
