South Putnam wins by 17 strokes over Cougars

BRAZIL -- South Putnam's boys' golf squad continued their blistering shooting Wednesday night, knocking off county foe North Putnam 161-178 at Oak Ridge.

The Eagles were paced by Derek Chestnut, who took medalist honors with a round of 39, followed by a pair of 40's from Alex Kelly and Justin Berry. Tanner Robinson rounded out the scoring with a 42 for the hosts.

North Putnam was led by Danny Smith's 43, followed by a 44 from Jon Willard, a 45 from Lance Clodfelter and a card of 46 from Jake Smith.

North Putnam head coach Linda Patrick noted that the score was a big improvement from the previous night's outing.

"We shot 201 last night on the back nine of Twin Bridges and some guys came down here tonight and cut twelve to fourteen strokes off their scores from last night," Patrick said.

"We got in last night and they were a little depressed. There were a few scores where they could have taken off a few more strokes but they did the best they could after last night."

"That round was still on their minds when we got on the bus today. I told them to get it out of their minds. It's a new course and they went for it.

South Putnam head coach Brian McClure was pleased that the squad continued to shoot well.

"The round played great for our confidence. The fact that we shot our best ever score, then turned around and shot a 161, is impressive," McClure said.

"To do it without one of our top three golfers is impressive. Justin Berry shot another best-ever round of 40, and he keeps getting better and better."

Not playing again until next Monday, Patrick said that the time between then would be useful for some play that needed attention.

"We'll be working on some things this week. We've got five rounds under our belts, close to the midpoint of the season. We want to be peaking close to around the time of the tournaments," Patrick said.

"We'll work a lot on the short game, such as putting and chipping on. Our long game's not too bad, but like everybody else, the short game is where we have to win the matches."

McClure added that the squad, having played mostly at home so far, would look for new ground to take on.

"We're pretty confident here. We know the course and we're shooting some good rounds. We'll play some other courses and keep our confidence," McClure said.

"If you're hitting the ball well, you can play on any course. If you're chipping and putting well, it doesn't matter where you're at," McClure added.

"We need to get some confidence on some other courses and see what that does for us."

At Oak Ridge

S. Putnam 161, N. Putnam 178

Medalist -- Chestnut (SP) 39

Individual Scores

South Putnam -- Chestnut 39, Kelly 40, Berry 40, Robinson 42, Gould 46, Query 66

North Putnam -- D. Smith 43, Willard 44, Clodfelter 45, J. Smith 46, Asher 47, Snyder 54

Next matches -- South Putnam hosts Rockville at North Putnam hosts Cloverdale next Monday.