By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
Medical Lake senior golfer Brendan Greene couldn't duplicate the straight and narrow shots he exhibited in last Monday's practice round when he carded a 76 and it kept him out of advancing in the 2A state golf tournament in Yakima.
Greene's perfection in practice, turned to frustration when play for real began and it cost him 12 penalty strokes leading to a 97 in day one on the 6,900 yard, par-72 Apple Tree Golf Course. “His game's way better than that,” Medical Lake boys' coach, Jim Mason said.
Mason noted Greene's been “Playing the best golf of his life,” lately, but on the opening day of the tournament he began to pull his driver. “He put four balls out of bounds and that was eight penalty strokes.” That was on the front and then he did the same twice on the back-9 and that, “Kind of dinged up his score.”
Mason noted that in reality, other than Greene's out of bounds strokes, “He played pretty well. If he wouldn't of had that I think he would have made the cut the second day.”
Added to his fading drives, frustration levels rise when you stick one out in the boondocks. “If you pull it at all you're going to be out of bounds,” Mason said of the course with an out of bounds that was very unforgiving.
Mason played with Greene this past weekend for fun and the senior had his game back. “I look at him being a first year player and if he had a couple more years under his belt I think he could play at the next level,” Mason said.
Lindsey Campbell was the other Medical Lake golfer to compete at state. According to her coach, Ivan Gustafson, Campbell was driving straight and was playing solid in almost every facet of her game, except one. “She lost confidence in her putter,” Gustfason said, finished with a 106 and failed to make the second day cut.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]
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