The overall team and individual scores weren’t as good as in recent seasons, but the closeness of the competition and resulting excitement that generated might have been all-time highs at the six-team Concorde District golf tournament.
Four high-school teams finished within five strokes of the lead for the team championship. Adding to the tension and anticipation, a playoff was necessary between the Westfield Bulldogs and Chantilly Chargers, after the teams tied for first with 644 totals after 36 holes of regulation on the Lakes Course at Twin Lakes Golf Course in Clifton. Westfield won after one playoff hole.
The South Lakes Seahawks finished third with a 319-328–647 total, with the Oakton Cougars fourth at 316-333–649. The four-time defending champion Madison Warhawks were sixth at 349-345–694.
Five teams were within 11 shots of the lead after the first round, but none took charge in the second round as each had higher scores than the day before.
In the playoff for first place, Westfield won after the first playoff hole when its four golfers had a total score of 21 on the hole, winning by three strokes.
The district-tourney title was Westfield’s first since 2009, the season Westfield went on to also win region and state championships.
Westfield, Chantilly and South Lakes qualified for this season’s 6D North Region tournament. Madison and Oakton missed out after both qualifying last year.
Two individual golfers each from Madison and Oakton qualified to play in the region tourney. From Madison, Robby Nielsen shot 82-83–165 and Colin Park 84-81–165 to advance. From Oakton, Maaz Nadeem had a 75-78–153 and Michael Zhou 75-87–162 to move on.
Nadeem tied for second place individually behind winner Rylan Shim of Westfield. The senior, who will play in college at the University of Florida, shot 74-75-149 to lead Westfield.
Also for Oakton, Jeffrey Young shot 84-83–167, Ben Shield 83-85–168, Isaac Hegg 86-87–173 and Niels Van Hout 83-88–171.
For Madison, Quinn Agniel shot 87-95-182 and Danika Pfeghardt 96-87-183.
Also for champion Westfield, Dyan Chinboot shot 77-82–159 and Evan Sacbibit 77-86–163.
South Lakes was led by Alexander McClain at 79-77-156, Nathan Spurrier at 76-80-156 and Felicity Chen at 74-87-161.
Chantilly’s Connor McCarthy tied for second at 78-75–153. His teammate Patrick O’Rourke shot 79-80-159.