A tradition after a high school golf team wins a tournament is to gather the team together on the 18 green a take a picture to document their success. For one team locally, that tradition has been initiated several times already in the young 2024 golf season.
The McCracken County Mustangs have clinched four first-place finished and a finish tied for second, officially marked third. Those five tournament have been all that the Mustangs have competed in as of Thursday, August 1, showing top marks in every event they’ve played in.
Those events include a first-place finish in the Marshall County Invitation to start the season, followed by another first in the Hopkins Central Invitational, a tied for second in the Trigg Invitational with Marshall County, first in the Ballard Memorial Invitational and a first place finish in the Hopkinsville Invitational.
“I’ve never had a team start quite like this, but it’s sure nice to get out and start like this,” McCracken County head coach Chris Gregory said. “It leads to confidence for things going forward and you look to just continue to build on that confidence through the season. Knowing that you can is huge, especially when it comes to this sport.”
While the high school golf season doesn’t wrap up until the beginning of October, this hot start is definitely a momentum booster for this team that is split between some veteran golfers and some newcomers.
“These are really big for our all-state point,” Dallas Vinson, one of the veterans said. “In past years we haven’t had the best of starts, but this year it’s been very good and there’s not a lot of pressure heading into the rest of the season with as good of a team that we have.”
The Mustang left town Thursday afternoon to compete in the Daviess County Invitational at the Ben Hawes Golf Course in Owensboro, KY where they hope to bring home another top finish.
“We are going to start with tomorrow and keep it going from there,” Landon Hunt said. “Golf season goes by pretty quick and before long it’s the postseason and I think if we can stay on this roll we will be looking good come postseason.”
With those top team finishes come several top individual finishes that have propelled the Mustangs to those team wins. Jack Farmery is one of those that started off hot with a second-place finish in the Marshall County Invite and turned it around for a first in a playoff in the Hopkins County Invite.
Of course with a team as talented as this one, any of their top five could come out and has come out on top so far this season including a first-place finish for Landon Hunt, Vinson taking second and Tanner Kight taking fourth all in the Ballard Invite.
And, with momentum like this, the guys are saying they feel like with the new additions, they might just be the team to beat.
“We have a really strong team this year, especially with guys like Tanner (Kight) and Brently (Gregory), so we have a pretty strong top five,” Farmery said. “If we start off a tournament well then it’s hard for us to lose, so if we keep starting strong, we will be good for the rest of the season.
For the newcomers, the early success is more of a confidence booster than anything, knowing that they have to shoot low in order to keep the team score low.
“I feel like I’ve been playing well and have been shooting some lower numbers that we’ve needed to win and backing up my team,” Brently Gregory said. “I enjoy wining with my team, they are a great group of guys and I hope we can make it far this season.”
But when it comes down to it, the winning is a focal point, but getting out on a different golf course every couple of days and playing with some of their best friends has led to a lot of fun for this Mustang squad.
“We just go out there and have fun,” Kight said. “Obviously it feels good to get out and win, but we are also having a lot of fun winning.”