Woodruff won the SCHSL Class AAA boys golf state championship on Tuesday, the second championship in three years. Wolverines senior Gage Howard, a Presbyterian College signee, won the individual title — shooting 143 over two rounds — with teammate and fellow PC signee Ben McKinney finishing tied for second at 147.
“It’s an awesome feeling, seeing these guys who work really hard every day and then to see the dream come to fruition. I mean, that is just super special as their coach,” Woodruff coach Bill Brasington said.
“We knew that if we did what we should, we could be one of the top teams in the state from the beginning of the year. I’ve got some really talented young golfers … such a good group of young men, that did everything that we asked of them.”
Along with Howard and McKinney, seniors Blake Kelly, a North Greenville signee, and Kyle Smoak rounded out the four scorers that led the Wolverines to their second state title.
Woodruf was in third in the team tournament after the first day after firing a 305 team score. That trailed Beaufort by six strokes and two to Wren. But as the two leading teams fell off their own pace in round two, with Beaufort shooting a 310 and Wren a 308, Woodruff improved on his score by one stroke and tied Beaufort for first place at 609. Woodruff won on the first playoff hole when Beaufort conceded before the end of the hole.
“After the first day, I didn’t feel bad at all about where we were. Being six shots back in team golf is not that many strokes. That can be overcome in one hole,” Brasington said. “The hard thing today was, again with playing with five golfers and three teams being in contention, there’s a lot of moving pieces, and you really didn’t know where you stand throughout.”
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Woodruff boys golf wins AAA state title, Gage Howard takes individual crown