Wood’s Rockwell, Longo to compete in golf states

FRONT ROYAL — Steve Rockwell couldn’t hold back his tears.

Up until the final individual scores came in at the conclusion of Monday’s Region 4D golf tournament, James Wood golfer Brayden Rockwell thought his high school golf career was over. But after scores came in that set up a sudden death hole between Rockwell and his teammate Jake Bursey, Rockwell made the most of the moment.

The senior finished the sudden-death, par-4 hole in five strokes compared to Bursey’s six. After sinking a short putt and watching Bursey be unable to tie Rockwell, Rockwell’s father, Steve, burst into tears as Brayden came over shortly after play concluded and embraced him with a hug.

The bogey wasn’t one of Rockwell’s best holes by any stretch of the imagination, but the putt was enough to send him to the Class 4 state tournament as an individual for the second year in a row.

“I’m gonna cherish that forever,” Rockwell said of the moment with his father. “He maybe not taught me [golf], but he’s always been at everything that he could possibly be at, even other sports activities. He’s always taking time out of work, out of his day, to come watch.”

Rockwell and Bursey competed on the 309-yard Red No. 1 hole. Although both golfers had poor shots off the tee, Rockwell’s short game set up a six-inch putt that he called "the scariest six-inch putt" of his life. He sunk it to ultimately win the head-to-head.

“My knees were shaking so hard on that putt,” Rockwell said. “I did not want to miss that.”

Rockwell’s performance on the extra hole will allow him to join his teammate, Ian Longo, on the trip to Heritage Oaks Golf Club in Harrisonburg, where Wood will have the only local golfers compete in states next Monday.

In the regional tournament, Rockwell finished with a 6-over par 77 on the Red and White nines (par-71 combination), tying Bursey and forcing the sudden death. Longo had a 4-over par 75.

Blacksburg scored a four-person score of 284, and second-place Salem scored a 304 to advance to states. Salem’s Kathryn Ha won medalist honors with a 7-under par 64. As a team, Wood scored a four-person score of 308, 32 strokes lower than fourth-place Handley, which scored a 340 in its last competition of the season.

While he wished it didn’t come down to a sudden death between two of his golfers, James Wood head coach David Oates was thrilled to watch Rockwell and his dad celebrate.

“It almost brought me to tears, because he thought it was over, but he prevailed,” Oates said while being a little choked up. “That’s Brayden. I kept telling him to just keep chugging along. He did. So it worked out for him. I think both him and his father were convinced his high school career was over, so he got that little glimmer, and he did it. He made it, so he’s really happy.”

Like Rockwell, Longo, a senior, thought his high school golf career was over before he realized his 75 was enough to be the second individual qualifier alongside Halifax’s Lukas Newton, who scored a 69.

“There were a couple individual scores we were waiting on, and there was one that came in at 69,” Long said. “So my heart kind of dropped. But then I had two more coming in the 80s, and we realized there were two more scorers. If I beat one of them, I made it. I was hanging out with my buddies. They came in, and [said] I beat the one kid. We all just kind of celebrated.”

Longo had one birdie on the day on hole No. 2 on the back nine after hitting a double-bogey on the ninth hole.

"It's great to know that my season's not over, because I didn't want to be done yet," Longo said.

Wood’s four scorers were Longo, Rockwell, Bursey and Laney Stiles (79).

"At first after I finished, I thought maybe the team had a chance, but we came a couple stroke shorts," Rockwell said. "I [thought] for sure that there was no chance. I thought there were gonna be two kids that would come in with lowers, but ended up not happening, and I'm grateful for it."

Handley’s Hudson Slaughter (80), Nash Sharma (86), Cooper Phillips (86) and Finn Slaughter (88) were the four scoring golfers for the Judges.

Competing as individuals, Sherando’s Jackson Hepner shot an 89, and Millbrook’s Trenton Conley shot an 85.

Rockwell added that his grandparents drove four and a half hours to watch him compete in Monday’s tournament. After hugging his father near the green, Rockwell also shared a moment with his grandfather.

“It means the world to have them there in that moment,” Rockwell said.

It wasn’t a perfect day for James Wood or Handley, but given the circumstances, Oates was pleased with the outcome.

"[Rockwell] and Jake had to play each other, and one of them was going to move on, and one of them was not," Oates said. "They're good friends, and it was hard with your two teammates.

“But if you would have told me, ‘Hey, your team’s not going to move on, but you’re going to get two of the three individual spots and the first alternate,’ I would have said I’ll take that all day."

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