Based on the results of this week’s St. Johns Country boys high school golf championship the 3A-District 2 tournament next month could be a low-scoring, highly competitive affair.
Beachside won its first-ever county championship at 2-under 286 at the Slammer & Squire, nipping defending Class 2A state champion Ponte Vedra by two shots and Creekside by five. Nease (307) was fourth, Toccoi Creek (311) was fifth and St. Augustine (315) sixth.
Cameron Reed of Ponte Vedra won the individual title at 3-under 69, edging Jonah Nacional of Beachside by one shot. Brady Dougan and Bryson Hughes of Creekside, and Jaspreet Kondal of Beachside tied at 1-under 71 and five players shot even par.
That meant 10 players came in at par of lower.
Consider this: the top five teams in the standings are all in 3A-District 2, and will face off on Oct. 28 or 29. The date is not yet set but the tournament is likely to return to the Slammer & Squire.
The tough part is that a good team or two may be left home when it comes to qualifying for the Region 3-3A tournament. The top two teams from the district will advance but there are at-large spots available, based on the state’s iWannaker rankings.
Tama Caldabaugh, Therese Quinn head for Seattle
Tama Caldabaugh of Ponte Vedra Beach and Therese Quinn of Jacksonville have qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which will be Sept. 21-26 at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle.
Both finished atop their respective qualifiers.
Caldabaugh shot 76 at the Bent Pine Golf Club in Vero Beach to tie for medalist. Quinn won outright with a 77 at the Westhaven Golf Club in Nashville.
The two have qualified multiple times for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur and in 2021 both reached the round of 16 in Point Clear, Ala.
Duke Butler honored by Texas A&M
Former Texas A&M golfer, PGA Tour player and PGA Tour executive Duke Butler III received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Aggies Letterman’s Association on Sept. 7 in College Station, Texas.
Butler was recognized during halftime of A&M’s game against McNeese State, after a banquet on Sept. 6.
Butler played for the Aggies from 1968-70 and was a member of the 1969 Southwest Conference championship team. He played 30 PGA Tour events, then became the tournament director for the Houston Open and executive director of the Houston Golf Association. He was the PGA Tour’s Tournament Director from 1992-2007 and was the first President of the Tour’s fall event in Napa, Calif.
Butler was inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 1986.
Ethan Tak, Jonah Nacional close fast
Ethan Tak and Jonah Nacional of St. Augustine both had hot finishes to shoot the same scores in the Florida Junior Tour’s The Park Open last week, at The Park in West Palm Beach.
Both shot 67 in the final round to post top-10 finishes. Tak finished solo third at 3-under 139, five shots behind winner Lawson Ford of West Palm Beach and Nacional tied for eighth at 1-over 143.
Tak birdied three of his last four holes and Nacional birdied four of his last six.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Beachside, Ponte Vedra on a collision course for wild 3A-District 2 golf
