HIGHLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Saugerties High\u2019s boys golf team captured the Mid-Hudson Athletic League (MHAL) championship by one stroke over Rhinebeck in the annual Larry Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament at Apple Greens Golf Course on Thursday, Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
The tournament brings in the top four division leaders from the MHAL, which plays a fall schedule.<\/p>\n
The Sawyers totaled 158 strokes over Apple Greens\u2019 par-36 front nine, with Rhinebeck one stroke back at 159. Rondout Valley was third at 172, followed by Onteora with 176 strokes.<\/p>\n
Ty Monroe and Kate Smith led Saugerties with 2-over 38s, with teammates Reid Myers and Chase Brott both firing 41s.<\/p>\n
Damian Haag and James Jacox were Rhinebeck\u2019s top players, followed by teammates Nico Dentico (40) and Oscar Clark (41).<\/p>\n
Third-place Rondout Valley\u2019s\u00a0 counting scores were posted by Hokai Liu (38), Hudson Paley (41), Stevie Schwartz (41) and Joey Sweeney (52).<\/p>\n
Onteora\u2019s top players were Jude Signore (41), Jacob Darcy (44), Jesper Peacock (45) and Max Scanlon (46).<\/p>\n
Saugerties High coach Mike Melville said the MHAL title was the first for Saugerties since the 1987 season. The Sawyers were a golf powerhouse in the 1980s under coach Bob Varrell and top player Todd Kramer.<\/p>\n
Under Varrell, the Sawyers had a 125-2 record. Kramer was a four-year all-league golfer. twice qualified for the states and shared with his teammates four straight Larry Johnson Memorial trophies honoring the best golf team in the league. He graduated from Saugerties in 1986.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Freeman on Friday, Oct. 10, Melville said he and Rhinebeck golf coach David Jutton were discussing the tight battle between Saugerties and Rhinebeck as they were riding around in a golf cart following the action.<\/p>\n
\u201cRhinebeck played great all day,\u201d Melville said. \u201cDave was telling me about his team because I didn\u2019t really know them since we didn\u2019t play them this season. His top six golfers all shot great for them. It was a lot closer than he expected. I thought we shot well as 158 is a good number for us, but I think Rhinebeck shot the match of the year for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melville said the Sawyers came into the Larry Johnson Memorial off a good performance on Monday, Oct. 6 when the team had a 154 total to beat Our Lady of Lourdes at the Links at Union Vale in Dutchess County to wrap up the MHAL\u2019s Division 1 title with a 5-0 record. The Sawyers completed a perfect 10-0 dual-meet mark with that win.<\/p>\n
Melville said the strength of the Sawyers\u2019 golf team has been its depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seven people who have qualified for sectionals,\u201d Melville said. \u201cI don\u2019t know the last time that happened at Saugerties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Qualifying for the Section 9 boys championship will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 15 at Apple Greens. Smith will compete in the Section 9 girls championship next spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HIGHLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Saugerties High\u2019s boys golf team captured the Mid-Hudson Athletic League (MHAL) championship by one stroke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1882,898,1418,913,56,914],"class_list":["post-2591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memorial-tournament","tag-high-school-boys-golf","tag-latest-headlines","tag-memorial-tournament","tag-new-york","tag-sports","tag-ulster-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}