Blacksburg Wins Metro Invitational Golf; “Big-11” Teams Prominent In Top-10

Patrick Henry's Bryce Tackett watches his shot on #14 at Hidden Valley on Thursday. Tackett was tied for the lead after firing a 1-under 70 in round one at Blue Hills before shooting 78 at Hidden Valley.
Patrick Henry’s Bryce Tackett watches his shot on #14 at Hidden Valley on Thursday. Tackett was tied for the lead after firing a 1-under 70 in round one at Blue Hills before shooting 78 at Hidden Valley. 

Blacksburg High School has set the bar in early-season high school golf.

Riding an 11-stroke lead after Wednesday’s first round of the Bob McLelland Metro Invitational golf tournament at Blue Hills Golf Club, the Bruins finished the deal on Thursday at Hidden Valley Country Club, pulling away for the relatively easy 18-shot victory.
Putting the exclamation point on the win was Blacksburg senior Hunter Duncan, who posted his second straight round of 1-under par 70 to win the individual medalist honors by four shots over a quintet of runners-up including Salem’s Garrison Conner, William Byrd’s Jason Spaar, Hidden Valley’s Grant Withers, along with Chris Zhang and Ben Carroll of Blacksburg. Conner was awarded the second place trophy based on his low round of 69 on Thursday. Byrd’s Derrick Chocklett and Blacksburg’s Melissa Meng each posted 2-round totals of 146 to finish tied for 7th. Lord Botetourt’s Brett Pennington and Franklin County’s John Hatcher Ferguson rounded out the top-ten with both posting 147.
In the team competition, Byrd (591) and Hidden Valley (593) followed Blacksburg, with Franklin County (615), Lord Botetourt (625), Salem (647) and Patrick Henry (649) finishing 4-7. Cave Spring finished 9th at 681.
Duncan had begun the final round tied with Patrick Henry’s Bryce Tackett after both posted 70s in Wednesday’s opening round. Tackett was still within 2 shots of Duncan after nine holes on Thursday before falling out of contention on the inward nine at Hidden Valley.
Still, it was a promising performance according to Patrick Henry head coach Terry Mills who has seen Patriot golf continually improve during his eight years at the helm.
“I wasn’t really surprised at Bryce’s round on Wednesday,” Mills noted. “Bryce and our entire team have been playing well. We’ve had around 20 players come out and we are seeing more commitment from everyone.”
“We’re missing our top senior, Vince Wheeler, in this tournament,” Mills added. “Vince had the opportunity to play in a national event in Rhode Island this week and it was just too big to turn down.”
The two-day Metro followed Monday’s Heritage Invitational at London Downs in ushering in the high school golf season for most area teams.
“We’ll play in an assortment of tournaments over the next month,” Mills said of the PH schedule. “We’ll be hosting our 5A Conference tournament on our home course at Roanoke Country Club on September 19th. We’re looking forward to that.”
Bill Turner

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