Steers golf finishes 4th at district, Nees advances to regionals

Steers golf finishes 4th at district, Nees advances to regionals News Staff Fri, 03/29/2024 - 1:06 pm

• (MICHAEL TODD, GRAHAM GOLF | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) The Graham Steers golf team competed in the district tournament at the Diamondback National Golf Club in Abilene from March 25-26. As a team, the Steers finished in fourth place, which ends their season, but freshman Jagger Nees advanced to the regional tournament as an individual. From left to right in this photo: Lawson Marin, Nees, Ben Lucas, Geurin Pettus and Zach Bryan.

TC Gordon sports@grahamleader.com

With the long season coming to a close, the Steers golf team finished fourth place at the district competition and freshman Jagger Nees advanced to the regional tournament with a third place overall finish.

Over two days of tough golf at the Diamondback National Golf Club in Abilene, the Steers played some of their better golf of the season, particularly on the second day when they had the second best team score.

Nees was consistent throughout the competition as he finished day one with a round score of 77 and one-upped himself on day two with a final score of 76 for a 153 overall, just four strokes behind second place and six behind the winner.

Graham’s team consisted of the freshman Nees, seniors Ben Lucas, Geurin Pettus and Lawson Marin and junior Zachary Bryan. The Steers ended with a team score of 704 over the two days, nine strokes behind Stephenville, who finished in third place.

On day one, Nees had the team’s lowest score of 77, Lucas recorded a 94, Pettus shot a 97 and Bryan and Marin both shot 99. Day two saw a lot of improvements for the team. Nees led again with 76, Bryan hit an 83, Pettus shot 87, Marin recorded a 91 and Lucas ended with a 99.

While Graham won’t be moving onto the regional tournament as a team because they weren’t one of the top two finishers, Nees qualified for regionals due to finishing third individually. According to UIL, the top two individual finishers advance, but if either of those players is on one of the advancing teams, the next highest ranked individuals not on advancing teams will move on.

Two of Brownwood’s golfers — the team that finished first in the district tournament — finished first and second, so Nees will get a chance to travel to Lubbock for the regional tournament April 15-16.

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