Chief's Win, Chief's Win

After a nice writeup in the Tampa Tribune (click to view) yesterday , the Chief's pulled through with a win over Berkley Prep with the lowest score of the year. CHAMBERLAIN 150, BERKELEY PREP 155 Gary shot a 35 to tie with BP's xxx Worth for match medalist. But that 35 was followed closely by Skylar Estes at 36, Trevor Joseph at 38, and Jacob Schuyler at 41. With only a six stroke differential from low to high, the Chiefs have now shown potential for being a tough team to beat.

Gary Comes 5th At The Greater Tampa Junior Golf Association Falcon Watch Tournament

The Greater Tampa Junior Golf Association has started up the season. GTJGA generally holds one-day tournaments throughout the school year on weekday school holidays. With high school golf as a priority, this is the first GTJGA event for Gary this year. Last year Gary was the boy's player of the year for the GTJGA.

The tournament was played at Falcon Watch Golf Club in Sun City, Florida. Gary started in good shape and was under par on the front nine when like a race horse, he "threw a shoe." He hit one into the water and walked in to play it out "making a good shot in length but not in direction" and hit it back into the water making a record (for this year) nine on the hole. He managed some good golf after that but ended with a season high 83 and a fifth place finish. The scores are on the GTJGA web site.

Chiefs Lose at Emerald Greens

Gaither High School beat the Chamberlain Chiefs at Emerald Greens in Carrollwood by six shots (169 to 163). Gary shot 38, Skyler Estes 40, Trevor Joseph 41, and Jacob Schuyler 50 for the Chiefs. Gaither's Josh Black won the individual match medalist title with a nice round of 37 on the tough par 36 course. The suspended team mates should be back next week. Maybe they can help make a difference with more bunching of scores if they can stay in focus.

Chiefs Lose in Playoff

Coach Bill Workman's Chiefs lost to Riverview in a one hole playoff today at The Babe. The boys team shot their second lowest score of the year with Gary Buffington and Skyler Estes each shooting one over par 36, Trevor Joseph at 41, Jacob Schuyler at 45 and Hunter Chewning at 49. The team total of 158 tied Riverview who were lead by Ian McConnell who shot even par 35 to win the match medalist honor. With the teams tied at the end of the round each sent out their number one player on the eighteenth hole for a "sudden victory" playoff. McConnell birdied the hole to beat Gary and won the match for Riverview. The Chiefs' record is now 4 and 5.

Gary Picked as Tampa Bay Fox TV 13 Athlete of the Week

Each week, Tampa TV station FOX 13's sports team profiles a scholar-athlete from Tampa Bay area high schools. This week's pick was Gary and he was interviewed by sports director Kevin O'Donnell. The piece aired on September 23, 2008, on the Five O'clock News in the Tampa Bay Area. Here is an online link to the video archives:
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Sports/Detail?contentId=7495745&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=6.1.1

Chief's Win one Match and Lose one This Week

The Chief's boys golfers won one and lost one this week losing to Newsome on Thursday at River Side and beating Hillsbourough on Wednesday at the PGA'S Tournament Players Championship Course. Gary won both matches with scores of 37 and 37 (one over each day). But the team has had a bad week with two (not one, two!) players suspended by the coach for on course etiquette incidents. Way to go coach, but too bad for the team. Skyler Estes and Trevor Joseph (each with 40 and 41 scores this week), and Gary have been steady all year and pulling their load. The team was looking like a good contender for making the state playoffs but if the fourth and fifth players can't stay on the course the team can forget any success this year.

Fifth Place at the Florida State Golf Association The Majors

Here's "The Majors" final leaderboard: http://www.floridajuniortour.org/ Note the tournament writeup mentioning the course and weather difficulties.

Gary shot a final round two under par 70 (tied with Travis Huston for low round of the tournament) to move from a first day 25th to a fifth place finish out of 66 players at the Florida State Golf Association junior tournament at The Majors Golf Club. There were 66 players in his age group consisting of most of the state's best junior players. On the first day (Saturday) of the 36 hole event he shot 78 and was tied for 25th place. The final round 70 was tied for the low round of the tournament. The Majors, located on the Space Coast of Florida, is an Arnie Palmer designed course with some rolling fairways, plenty of water and an island green. It is said to look more like a North Carolina course than a Florida course. The course played to about 6600 yards and was in great shape with a course rating of 74 and a slope of 138. For the uninitiated, this means it is a very difficult course! On day one Gary had one double bogie and one birdie. The day one birdie was on the 17th with a Driver seven iron to a 510 yard par five (down wind), where he had a twenty foot eagle putt. On day two he had five birdies (four on the front nine) and three bogies. Day two he had a great ball striking round by hitting 11 fairways and 15 greens in regulation. The wind was different as he again birdied the 17th but this time it took a three wood to hit the green from 253! Although he holed four birdie putts in the final round, he missed two three footers and two six foot putts! Check out the scoreboard at the following URL: http://www.floridajuniortour.org/tournaments/leaderboard.asp?tID=548&boardID=3
Check out the course at http://www.majorsgolfclub.com/

Chiefs Beat Robinson at MacDill Air Force Base in Hurricane Ike

As Hurricane Ike blew through the Gulf of Mexico, the Chamberlain Chiefs golf team played at MacDill Air Force base on the shores of Tampa Bay. Coach Bill Workman's boys beat Robinson High School at the par 36 Bay Palm Course. Play was slowed by high wind gusts and several bursts of driving rain as Gary and Skykler playing in the same group hid behind a tree and held the umbrella perpendicular to the ground to block horizontal blowing rain. In spite of the conditions, it was the second lowest team score of the year with the Chiefs' 164 to Robinson's 197. Gary led the Chiefs with a tournament low score 37 while Skyler Estes was close behind at 39. Trevor Joseph, Justin McCormick, and Jacob Schuyler each shot 44, with Hunter Chewning at 47. This was Jacob's first match, and he had a score that counted (the low four scores make the team score). The team is showing more of a bunching of scores which should bode well in future matches. This victory raises the Chiefs season record to 3 wins and 3 losses in five matches. (Explanation: In the first match there were three teams. The Chiefs beat one opponent and lost to another so had one win and one loss in the same match. All other matches have been two teams only as the golf courses usually limit this donated free play to two teams.)

This weekend Gary will play in a Florida State Golf Association 36 hole event on "The Majors" course at Palm Bay, Florida. This tournament is independent from school golf. Here is the URL: http://www.fsga.org/championships/infoArchive/fsgapairings/8873.html The tournament requires an invitation exemption for prior performance and will include many of the state's best juniors. The link will give the tee times. Tampa resident Travis Huston, son of PGA multiwinner John Huston, is in the event. Travis, different from his Dad, is a lefty. Gary and Travis have competed in The Greater Tampa Junior Golf Association events since they were each about 8 years old.

Plant Beats Chiefs at The Babe

Plant High led by tournament medalist Doug Letson (one over par 36) beat the Chiefs 154 to 174. The Chiefs playing at their home course were led by Gary at 39, Trevor Joseph at 42, Skyler Estes at 46, and Hunter Chewning (playing his first match) with a 47. Plant is one of the toughest teams in the area, and the Chiefs did not play their best.

Chiefs Win at Heritage Harbor

The Chiefs traveled up Dale Mabry to Heritage Harbor at Lutz, Florida and won their second match of the year in this two team match. http://www.heritageharborgolf.com/page/53-1391.htm

AJ Kuhn of the Sickles High School shot even par 36 on his home course to win the medalist honor with Gary and Skyler Estes each shooting one over 37. With Trevor Joseph at 38, Justin McCormick at 42 and Brett Blair back from medical leave and shooting 44 the Chiefs had their lowest team score of the year at 154. Gary went bogie, birdie, bogie on the first three holes and then pared the final six for the one over finish.