Seven months of waiting was worth it.
What started, back in the fall, for West Genesee boys golfers Dylan Plis and Joe Morgan culminated with them going to the top of the leaderboard during a soggy Section III state qualifying tournament last week at Seven Oaks in Hamilton.
Even with the late-spring date on the calendar, conditions at Seven Oaks, especially during Thursday’s opening round, felt more like late autumn. Rain fell so hard that play was stopped and the cut made after just nine holes were in the books.
Morgan managed a 39, three over par, and was part of a four-way tie for first with Ben Donohue (Baldwinsville), Sam DePasquale (Whitesboro) and Matt Barton (Thousand Islands). Plis also made the cut, but his 43 left him in the middle of the pack.
They weren’t the only local golfers to get pat the opening round. Marcellus had Carter Austin shoot a 41, Frank Szczech post a 44 and Jay Colella shoot a 45 to move forward, while Solvay saw Jon Smolen post a 43 and Westhill had Sean Dadey move forward with a 44.
Drier final-round conditions on Saturday allowed for a full round, and Plis flourished more than anyone. His two-over-par 74 was the low individual score and led him all the way to a tournament victory by two strokes with a 27-hole total of 127.
Morgan, meanwhile, played a steady round, and his 80, which produced a total of 119, tied him with Teddy Trosset (Cooperstown), Cody Thorp (Cazenovia) and Johnny Gruninger (Manlius-Pebble Hill) for second place.
Together, Morgan and Plis would make their way to Cornell University’s Robert Trent Jones-designed course in Ithaca for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament, joined by Trosset, Thorp, Gruninger, Donohue, Barton, B’ville’s Maxwell Dec and New Hartford’s Jack Angelucci as the top nine finishers advanced.
