Bedford’s golf team is very good.
And very young.
The Mules shot a round of 308 Monday at Carrington Golf Club to win the Monroe County Championship by 14 strokes and didn’t have a senior in the lineup.
“This is a good thing we have going,” Bedford coach Brad Reed said. “All of our freshmen are really competing. We should be good for the next four years.”
The Mules have great depth. Sometimes players on the junior varsity squad post scores better than the golfers in the varsity lineup.
Photo Gallery: Monroe County Golf Championship
“They have to earn their time,” Reed said. “Everyone has to be patient and work their way up.”
One freshman who has already earned his spot on the varsity is Taleon Guess.
He shot a round of 74 Monday to take medalist honors.
“He’s pretty consistent,” Reed said of Guess. “He hits good drives and is consistently on the fairway.”
And he isn’t awed by being a freshman on the varsity.
He came to the County Championship expecting to win.
“Actually, I was pretty confident,” he said. “I knew I could win. I’ve been playing well lately.”
If Guess’ confidence needed a boost, they got it early Monday with three birdies in five holes on the front 9.
“I got lucky with a putt on a par 5,” he said. “I made it from 40 feet. After that, I felt good.”
The best competition Guess got for medalist honors came from teammate Carter Klawonn, who shot 75 to tie Marco Tylutki of New Boston Huron for second place individually.
It was no surprise to Guess that he had to fight off a teammate to finish first.
“We’ve got 10 guys who can all shoot in the 30s or lower 40s (for 9 holes),” he said.
Frank Soss joined Bedford teammates Guess and Klawonn on the All-Tournament first team with a 78 and Jayce Yarad made the second team with an 81.
“We had a good day today,” Reed said. “We had three guys under 80. That’s a good closing out of the regular season. We have the SEC Tournament next week.”
Monroe took the County Championship last season after the Mules won it the year before. They wanted the trophy back in Temperance.
“It’s always one of our goals to win the Monroe County Championship,” Reed said.
New Boston Huron took second with 322, followed by Monroe 324, Gibraltar Carlson 329, St. Mary Catholic Central 348, Flat Rock 356, Dundee 372, Airport 384, Ida 388, Summerfield 454, Jefferson 482.
Two Monroe golfers rounded out the All-Tournament first team – Kyle Pafford with 77 and Brenden McCullough with 78.
Huron and Carlson each had a pair of second-teamers. Jase Marcott (79) and Zackary Sisk (80) made it for Carlson and Tyler Toth (79) and Nocholas Kosiba (81) were honored for Huron.
Rounding out the second team was Mathis Lymond of SMCC with 79.
Top golfers for the other teams were Ben Scully of Flat Rock (85), Carter Bahn of Dundee (88), Eli Van Huysen of Summerfield (89), Jake Trythall of Airport (91), Zack Bailey of Ida (94) and Ben Peer of Jefferson (108).
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Freshman leads Bedford to Monroe County Golf Championship