It may be a clich?, but the taking-it-one-shot-a-time approach proved highly successful for Mountain View golfer Graham Moody.
The freshman was so focused on his own game and each shot that it wasn’t until he walked off the 18th green at The Creek at Qualchan in Spokane that he learned how he fared.
It was then when coach Jim Peterson told him he was the Class 3A state champion.
Moody followed up his 4-under 68 on Tuesday with a 1-under 71 to beat Danny Tiscareno of Lakeside-Seattle and Ryan Feyrer of Capital by one shot.
“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” Moody said. “Maybe it will tomorrow at school. But it means a lot because I put in a work in the offseason to prepare for this. I really feel like I’ve mentally matured over the past few months.”
Moody was 1-under par at the turn on Wednesday, but then things went awry after a four-putt on No. 12.
“I had no idea about where I stood until 12,” he said. “Then I knew I needed to get something going.”
He got back into the mix with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 15 and 16. He had a birdie putt lip out on 17.
“On 18, I killed my drive, but wasn’t able to get up-and-down for birdie,” he said. “I tapped in for par. I thought that might leave me in a playoff. But then Peterson told me that I had won. I was so focused on each shot that I had no idea if I was over or under par until I saw my card.”
With teammates Mason White and Willie Yeh improving from their first-round scores, Mountain View fourth as a team.
“We all played pretty well,” Moody said. “It’s nice to do well as a team.”
On the heels of the stellar prep career of Fort Vancouver’s Spencer Tibbits, Moody’s win marks the fourth time in five years Vancouver has produced the 3A boys individual golf state champion.
Prairie’s Jacob Abrahamson placed 14th and Dante Heitschmidt was 17th.
Two other Clark County golfers took home runner-up finishes at state.
Washougal’s Kallie Sakamoto followed up her first-round 78 with another 78 at Horn Rapids Golf Course in Richland to finish tied for second at the 2A girls state tournament. Sakamoto’s 156 was eight shots behind champion Kenedee Peter of Ephrata.
In the 1A/2B/1B girls tournament at Hangman Valley in Spokane, La Center’s Taylor Entenman shot a 76 to give her a two-day total of 148, good for second place behind Davenport’s Kaysa Panke’s 137.
Camas’ Hailey Oster shot a 74 Wednesday to finish at 147 to place tied for ninth in the 4A girls tournament. That helped the Papermakers place second behind Bellarmine Prep of Tacoma for a third consecutive season. Ashley Clark finished 13th and Emma Cox was 15th for Camas, which had all five of its golfers make the cut and finish in the top 30.
“Our team played really well,” Camas coach Bob Foster said. “Bellarmine, they were basically unbeatable. But our girls ground it out.”
In the 4A boys tournament at Canyon Lakes in Kennewick, Camas freshman Owen Huntington placed fifth at Kennewick’s Canyon Lakes Golf Course in his state debut.
Huntington fired a 144 over 36 holes to finish eight shots behind the winner, Mt. Si’s Drew Warford (137).
What turned his final-round around came on the par-3 12th hole, a hole Huntington admitted gave him trouble in the practice round.
No trouble this time: He made birdie for the first of four consecutive to finish 18 holes at 71.
That hole turned my day around,” Huntington said. “I knew I had three easier holes ahead … That started a little bit of momentum.”
Union’s Dylan Henry placed tied for 16th.
Prairie’s Delainey Patterson cut 10 shots off her first-round score to shoot a 76 Wednesday and placed tied for 12th in the 3A girls tournament at Indian Canyon in Spokane.
Ridgefield’s Cade Bringhurst was the top local at the 2A boys tournament in Richland, placing tied for 13th. Columbia River’s Kyle Gomez tied for 17th.
Seton Catholic’s Sean Ball tied for 14th at the 1A boys tournament in Liberty Lake.
