Lakewood Ranch snags final qualifying berth in Class 3A-District 14 boys golf tournament

A coaching change and higher-than-normal rain patterns this fall created a situation unfamiliar to Lakewood Ranch’s boys golf team.

The Mustangs weren’t the favorites heading into Monday’s Class 3A-District 14 tournament at Sarasota’s revamped Bent Tree Country Club.

“I expected to get through,” said first-year Lakewood Ranch coach John Victor, who inherited a team that missed the states last year for the first time since 2009.

The Mustangs did just that, qualifying as one of the top three teams advancing to next week’s Class 3A-Region 5 tournament at Lake Suzy’s Kingsway Country Club.

Sarasota Riverview claimed back-to-back district titles with a 308 behind Erik Souchak’s 3-under par 69, and Venice took second place with a 312.

Lakewood Ranch grabbed the final qualifying spot with a 316.

“Their goal is states,” Victor said. “I think they know what they’re capable of doing.”

Leading the Mustangs was sophomore Drew Angelo, who posted a 1-over par 73.

His round came on a wind-filled day at a course that is different from a year ago. Bent Tree shortened some holes and created a new par-3 on the back nine after flipping the sides following home construction on land previously used by the course.

“You have to pick a target based on the wind,” Angelo said. “You couldn’t aim down the middle of the fairway. You had to aim, sometimes, to a tree that was in the rough left or something like that.”

After a bogey on No. 11, Angelo fought back with birdies on Nos. 14 and 15 — both par-3s on the back nine.

“You’re not going to always have your ‘A’ game, so, anyways, I probably had my ‘B’ or ‘C’ game,” Angelo said. “It was a good off day, sort of.”

The lowest three scores not on an advancing team also qualified. That meant Braden River’s Chandler Hammett made it with a 78.

“I found it hard to build momentum,” he said. “But when I had it, it’d go in spurts. But I just got to get a little more consistent.”

Hammett is following his older brother’s footsteps into the regional tournament. Andrew Hammett won the district tournament two years ago and is now a college golfer at Ferris State University in Michigan.

“He gave me a lot of great advice on how to perform under the pressure,” Chandler Hammett said. “I really appreciated the advice from him.”

Hammett said he needs to putt and hit the ball off the tee better to get past regionals next week.

The other two individual qualifying berths went to Sarasota’s Austin Kuster (77) and North Port’s Zack Kubik (80).

On the team side, Braden River (341), Palmetto (397) and Manatee (410) also competed. Their seasons came to a close, though Pirates first-year head coach Matt Hill said he was pleased with how his team performed.

“We’ve been rained out a lot throughout the year,” Hill said. “We’ve had a lot of rainouts. We were just glad to get 18 holes in. The weather was awesome. Chandler played great, which made it even better.”

So when next Monday’s region tournament takes place, just Lakewood Ranch will represent the area at Kingsway as a team.

And Victor is confident on the course’s layout suiting his players.

“As long as they’re prepared and they study the course a little bit, I think it’ll be a better situation for our team,” Victor said.

This story was originally published October 10, 2016 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch snags final qualifying berth in Class 3A-District 14 boys golf tournament."