All of the area boys golfers that had done well in their respective Section III fall tournaments had to wait until late May to get their chance to advance further. On Thursday morning, 70 golfers teed off at the Seven Oaks Course near Colgate University in the Section III state qualifier.
They included a strong group of Fayetteville-Manlius golfers – Ryan Keller, Andrew Massa, Kyle Kilroy, Tim Zapisek, Jimmy Barnes and Steve Cacchio, along with CBA’s Jack Bellardini and East Syracuse Minoa’s Colin Sloan and Kyle Reader and Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Mark Murray.
Only two of the golfers survived the first-round cut. Bellardini did so with an 80, putting him six shots behind first-round leader Mike May (Auburn), while Keller emerged from the large F-M contingent to get an 82, just one shot below the cut line of 83.
Then, in Saturday’s final round, Bellardini improved to a 75, and his total of 155 left him tied for fourth place, though far back of May, who won with a 144 after a two-under-par 70.
Keller finished with an 81, and his 163 left him in a tie for the ninth and final state tournament berth with three others – Baldwnsville’s Matt Monaco, West Genesee’s Dylan Plis and Oswego’s Sean Dain. They went to a four-man playoff, and Monaco won it.
So Keller just missed out, but Bellardini, Monaco and May made it, along with Alex Kunzwiler (Oswego), Dante Migliore (Frankfort-Schuyler) Bobby Davenport (West Canada Valley) and three New Hartford golfers – Tom Mandel, Alec Bard and Matt Dreimiller. They advanced to this weekend’s state tournament held at Cornell University’s course in Ithaca.
Massa, among the others, was the closest to advancing to the final round, as he shot an 85. Sloan finished with an 87, while Kilroy had a 91 and Zapisek a 92. Barnes and Cacchio both posted 93 as Reader finished with a 94 and Murray shot a 95.
Unlike F-M, CBA and ESM, MPH and Bishop Grimes had their regular season in the spring, and would attempt to get golfers into the state qualifier during last Monday’s sectional West Division Tournament at Marcellus Golf Club.
Of them, only Murray finished within the top 25 percent of competitors and advanced, shooting an 86 in hot, humid conditions. Gerrit Church, with an 89, fell one shot short, with Bryce Church adding a 90, just two shots away. Liam O’Malley and Nate Lesch each posted 96, with George Bruno posting a 109. Jacob Wright was Grimes’ lone qualifier for this tournament and had a 114.
