Hunter Crist of Radford and Ryan Highfield of Blacksburg defeated Carter Wolfe of Gate City and Wyatt Cochran of Blountville, Tenn. 3-to-2. recently on the Blue Ridge Junior Golf Tour.
Also, Major Ewing of Blacksburg teamed with McKenzie Weddle of Floyd to defeat Abby Bradley of Castlewood and Kolben Gregg of Greenville, TN.
Those wins helped carry the Blue Ridge team to an overall win over players from the Sneds Junior Golf Tour in the annual 2-Tour challenge on Aug. 20.
Fincastle in Bluefield played host to the all-star players from the two junior tours.
This unique event has been played since 2018 and is contested in match-play style. Nine points were at stake in the competition that featured a “4 ball” or “better ball” format of play on the opening nine holes and singles matches on the closing nine holes.
In “4 ball” or “better ball,” each player is paired with a partner. The two play their own balls throughout the hole but count the score that is lowest.
During the singles matches, each player competes against one other player from the opposing side. Each team had six players. The teams vied for three points during the “4 ball” matches and six points during the singles matches.
Because the Blue Ridge team had won the previous year, the Sneds side would need to secure five points to win the contest. The Blue Ridge side prevailed 6 ½ to 2 ½.
Though it seems the results amounted to a comfortable four-point victory, match play results are seldom comfortable. Four of the matches ended with a 1-up score, the slimmest of margins to gain a point.
Here is a breakdown of the nine matches:
On the opening nine holes, the Blue Ridge side won all three of the “better ball” matches. In match #1 David Goode of Wytheville teamed with Rocky Frye of Bramwell, WVa, and defeated Tucker McLain of Church Hill, Tenn., and Tanner McPeek of Rogersville, Tenn., 1 up.
The Blue Ridge Tour was able to win match #2 as well as Hunter Crist of Radford and Ryan Highfield of Blacksburg claimed wins.
In match #3, Major Ewing of Blacksburg teamed with McKenzie Weddle of Floyd to win for the Blue Ridge Junior team.
Playing in the singles matches on the second nine holes, the Sneds Tour got on the board first as Tanner McPeek defeated David Goode 2-1 in match #4. However, the Blue Ridge Tour won the next three matches to secure the team victory.
Rocky Frye made a clutch 3-foot putt on the final hole to maintain his 1-up advantage and defeat Tucker McLain in match #5.
Hunter Crist defeated Carter Wolfe 2-1 in match #6. Ryan Highfield defeated Wyatt Cochran 3-2 in match #7.
The Sneds Tour registered another point as Abby Bradley defeated McKenzie Weddle 1-up in match #8. In the final match, Kolben Gregg and Major Ewing tied. After tallying all of the matches, the Blue Ridge side earned 6 ½ to 2 ½ victory.
