James Wood's Mounts bounces back with 75 at Gunter

It was an impressive bounce-back performance from Mounts. He shot a 72 on Wednesday in a Northwestern District mini at Shenandoah Valley Golf Club, but he followed that with an 85 on Thursday at SVGC during the first round of the Gunter.

“I came out today, and I didn’t care what I shot [Thursday],” said Mounts, who was 3-under through four holes Friday. “My freshman year, I would have caved in after what I did [Thursday]. I would have told myself I wasn’t a good golfer, given up, and shot another 84, 85.

“But today I calmed down, and I just played golf. I stayed relaxed, played good golf and just swung the golf club really well.”

Once again, no one swung their clubs like Loudoun Valley’s Ryan Hammer. Last year’s Group 4A state champion won his third straight Billy G. Phillips Award for being the low medalist at the Gunter.

Hammer followed up his 1-under 70 from Thursday with another 70 for a total of 140, three strokes better than first-round leader Alex Price of Woodgrove (69-74 — 143) and Charlottesville’s Zach Russell (72-71 — 143). Hammer — who has verbally committed to NCAA Division I Longwood University, whose team includes freshman and Sherando graduate Brett Loy — tied for the lowest score of the round with Mason Kidwell of Washington (W.Va.).

Hammer’s Loudoun Valley squad was not able to win its fourth straight team title. Washington (294-298 — 592) took first and Loudoun Valley (297-300 — 597) and first-round leader Woodgrove (292-305 — 597) tied for second in the 12-school tournament.

Sherando (330-346 — 676) placed seventh, James Wood (340-346 — 686) placed eighth, Handley (337-363 — 700) took ninth and Millbrook (394-399 — 793) was 12th.

Tournament organizers decided to go with a shotgun start instead of sending half the field off at the first hole and the other half at the 10th to beat the anticipated rain.

Mounts started at the 10th. He birdied the par-3 12th hole, then eagled the 368-yard, par-5 13th hole to get to 3-under.

“I hit my drive to 160 yards [away], then I took a knockdown 7-iron and hit it to about 11 feet, then made the putt,” said Mounts, whose family has a membership at WCC. “It was a good hole, it felt great.

“I really hit good tee shots at the beginning, and I was putting really well. I hit my tee shots a lot better than [Thursday].”

James Wood coach David Oates said he liked what he saw from Mounts, who also had a birdie on the par-5 second hole.

In addition to Mounts’ parents, Oates also had a conversation with Mounts on Thursday about not letting a rough round snowball.

“This is more how we’re expecting him to play,” Oates said. “He’s got to learn how to grind things out. [Thursday] was a good learning experience for him, and I was pleased with how he bounced back.”

Oates was also pleased with how his team fared. Oates said he was expecting James Wood to be about 15 or 20 shots worse than they were Thursday since Mounts is his only golfer with much experience at WCC, but the Colonels’ score was only six strokes higher.

Cameron Baker and Jackson Lynch each shot 89s Friday, with Baker improving by one shot from Thursday. Logan Harper shot a 93, but his tournament score of 174 was fifth-best locally.

Judy didn’t shoot as well as he did Thursday. But his 82 trailed only Mounts among local golfers, and considering how little experience he has with WCC, he was satisfied.

Judy — who started on the third hole — said being able to par the par-4 seventh hole helped him go on to have a steady round.

“I was in the bunker on my second shot, and I was able to throw it out close and one-putt for my par,” Judy said. “A hole like that builds your momentum and your confidence.”

Sherando coach Rob Wright was particularly pleased with Brandon Nice, who improved by three shots from Thursday with an 86 to give him the area’s sixth-best tournament score (175). Caleb Dotson shot an 88 to give him the fourth-best local overall score for the tournament (170).

“I knew the scores would be higher [than Thursday],” said Wright, whose team’s score was 16 strokes higher than Thursday. “But for this young group, this was a great learning experience, because you have to really play smart golf here. We need something like this early in the season.”

Handley’s Andrew McIntyre finished with the third best local tournament score (82-85 — 167) while Maddi Neff (78-99) tied James Wood’s Lynch for the area’s seventh-best tournament score (177).

Millbrook was led by Nick Varcadipane, who improved by 12 strokes from Thursday’s first round with an 87.

“A lot of it right now is just getting our guys familiar with playing in matches, because a lot of guys don’t have a lot of match experience,” Pioneers coach Mark Manspile said. “I told them I’m not concerned about how they’re scoring. We’re going to continue to work in practice and get better with the fundamentals. Around the greens, we can certainly cut off a lot of strokes.”

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