Your 2019 Scouts Golf team are State Champions. Despite being down 10 strokes on Friday, the Scouts returned on Saturday as the Illinois 3A State Champs. 

Leading the way for the Scouts and placing 2nd individually was senior Patrick Moorhead. Moorhead shot a 3-under total, 144 combined over the two days. 

“Just my mentality,” Moorhead said about what was going well for him in his two rounds. “I focused on one shot at a time and that helped me make some birdies and good par saves.” 

Following Moorhead was junior Flynn Bradley who shot 3-over on the second day and 10-over total, and sophomore Jack Marshall who shot 4-over on the second day and 10-over total. To round out the top four scores was junior Charlie Haggerty who bounced back from a tough first round and shot 1-over on the second day to finish 11-over total. 

Juniors Pierce Grieve and Colin Jasper were not far behind the top four as they shot 12-over combined and 13-over combined respectively. 

Going into the second day it wasn’t looking too good for the Scouts. They were 10-back of 1st place Glenbrook North and were in 4th place themselves. However, the Scouts knew what they had to do to give themselves a chance, and they did just that. 

The weather was nice on Saturday, 64 and sunny, giving the Scouts an even better chance at making a run for the title. 

The Scouts, coached by Jim Matheson,  started off a little slow with their top four scores playing the first 3 holes 4-over. The Scouts bounced back, however, playing the next 3 holes 4-under, including an eagle from Haggerty on the 544-yard par 5. 

The team, along with the fans who made the trek down, started to believe. Some of the other teams had been saying that they “didn’t belong here” after they narrowly got in after Sectionals, but after the first couple of holes, they started to change people’s minds.  

“We played with a chip on our shoulders.” Grieve said. “We used the ‘we shouldn’t be here’ mentality to fuel our fire. We knew if we came out of the gate strong we could tie it up after 9 holes.” 

It only took 7. After the first 7 holes, the Scouts had taken the lead with the top 4 scores shooting 5-over on those 7. The Scouts then played holes 8 and 9 2-over to finish the front 9 7-over. 

Individually, Moorhead shot a 35, Haggerty shot a 36, Bradley shot a 39, and Marshall shot a 41 to round out the top 4 scores on the front 9. 

The Scouts picked up right where they left off on the front nine and played holes 10,11 and 12 2-under, bringing their total down to 5-over on the day. 

The Scouts got even hotter and played the next 3 holes exceptionally well. With  three birdies, two bogeys, and an eagle from Bradley, they played 13, 14 and 15 3-under to bring their total down to 2-over on the day. 

The Scouts finished off 16,17 and 18 3-over to bring their total on the day back to 5-over, and 25-over total. They did what they needed to do. 

“We had a good idea of how the course was going to play going into Saturday,” Bradley said. “We knew what we needed to do and we did it.” 

After shooting an incredible 5-over on the second day, the Scouts had jumped the three teams ahead of them and into first place by an astounding eight strokes. They would end up winning by 8 strokes. 

“It was pretty sick winning senior year,” Moorhead said. “There’s no better way to go out.” Moorhead’s second round 69 was tied for the lowest score of anyone through the two days. 

Moorhead was the only senior playing down at State and his presence as a leader will be missed next year. He was one of the senior captains along with Sam Rogers and Michael Manfred. Nick Pedian is the only other senior the Scouts will be losing. 

Although the Scouts are losing lots of strong leadership and talent, the future is bright with the juniors and sophomores who played major roles for the Scouts down the stretch. 

Congratulations Scouts!