Saint Stephen’s pulls together county golf tourney on short notice

In the span of three weeks, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School brought together most of Manatee County.

A miscommunication among the county’s eight schools left the Manatee County High School Golf Tournament in limbo. The Falcons, scheduled to host the tournament next season at Bradenton Country Club, stepped up to organize this year’s boys tournament.

Saint Stephen’s head coach Matt Primrose has six of the eight county schools on board for Saturday’s championship at Buffalo Creek Golf Course in Palmetto. Buffalo Creek, which hosted last year’s county championship, was receptive to the idea of bringing the tournament back for a second straight year.

“They rolled out the red carpet for us,” Primrose said. “It’s kind of a lot to ask them to do it two straight years, but they were awesome.”

Manatee and Southeast are the only teams missing, so Lakewood Ranch, Braden River, Palmetto, Bayshore, Bradenton Christian and the Falcons will make up the field. First tee times are scheduled for 10:58 a.m.

The Mustangs, who have historically dominated the county tournament, are the defending team champions. They won by six shots over Braden River last year. Bradenton Christian’s Landry Miller, who was a senior last year, won the individual title after Lakewood Ranch’s Drew Angelo found a water hazard on his approach on the 18th hole at Buffalo Creek to finish one shot behind.

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 12:17 AM with the headline "Saint Stephen’s pulls together county golf tourney on short notice."