Fort Vancouver’s Spencer Tibbits wins fourth consecutive 3A district golf title

RIDGEFIELD — The best golfers are often their own biggest critics.

Spencer Tibbits is no different.

So it must be telling when he walked off the course at Tri-Mountain on Tuesday with a smile on his face. It must say something that he was pleased with his round.

Tibbits continued his spectacular high school career with his fourth Class 3A District 4 boys golf title. The senior from Fort Vancouver fired an 8-under-par 64 to cruise to a 25-stroke victory in the two-day event.

Tibbits finished with a 12-under 132 after a ho-hum 68 on the first day.

“This means a lot to me. When I was a freshman, that was one of the goals I wanted, to win four district championships in a row,” Tibbits said. “I pulled that one off.”

In the spring, he will be going for his third state title.

Tuesday, though, was his final round of high school competition until the spring. He ended this part of his senior season with quite a memory.

He has now gone 88 holes without a bogey.

And he played better as the tournament progressed.

“I struck the ball a lot better on the back-nine,” he said. “The first 27 holes, I made some putts, but wasn’t hitting it just right. The back nine, my game really started coming together to what it usually is. There’s always a couple (strokes) you leave out there, but can’t complain about a 30 on a nine.”

Tibbits was 5-under 35 coming home. That included birdies on 10, 12 and 14 with an eagle on the 13th.

He also was unlucky on the 15th when his approach hit the flag stick and bounced far from the hole. He was able to two-putt to save par.

He had tough situations on Nos. 3 and 17, as well.

He lipped out of a fairway bunker and needed to get up and down to save par from 70 yards out on No. 3. His stuck his shot within three feet of the cup.

On 17, he had what he called a putt “out of nowhere,” a terrible stroke on his birdie attempt that left him 12 feet from the cup.

“I wasn’t thinking about the (bogey-free) streak. I just knew I had a good round going and these are the putts you have to make to keep a good round going,” Tibbits said of his attempt to save par. “I stayed as relaxed as possible and poured it down the middle.”

Gage Hannon of Prairie finished second with a 157. Kelso’s Damon Temanson took third with a 162.

While allocations are not official, district officials are hopeful the top three from this tournament will advance directly to state. The next six golfers would go to a bi-district tournament.

Prairie, with four players in the top six — Hannon, Jacob Abrahamson, Kaleb Locke, and Dante Heitschmidt — won the team title over Kelso.