Tiger golfers finish in middle of the pack

The Mountain Home Tiger golfers finished in the middle of the pack at the Mountain Home Invitational golf tournament at Desert Canyon Municipal Golf Course last Thursday.

The Mountain Home Tigers finished last in both the girls and boys competition at the SI. 4A golf match earlier in the week at Purple Sage Golf Course in Caldwell on April 5.

The host Lady Cougars from Caldwell won the girls competition, shooting a 171 total. Bishop Kelly was second with a 183, Vallivue was third at 185, Kuna came in at 200, and Mountain Home, which was able to field a full team this time, carded a 234.

Mallory Rhead shot a 48, which tied her for 11th, 10 shots back of Kuna's Ellie Brown and Bishop Kelly's Kaci Valla, who both shot a 38 to tie for medalist honors. Kylie Lippert tied for 18th with her 58, and Carlotta Vaugh and Rachel Duff both shot 64s.

Bishop Kelly won the boys competition, carding a 147 total. Vallivue was second with a 153, four shots better than Caldwell, Emmett was fourth with a 164, followed by Kuna at 170 and Mountain Home, 174.

Kyle Rhodes and Pat Casabonne of Bishop Kelly shared medalist honors with 35s, a shot ahead of Caldwell's Mark Cowman. Tiger golfers Joe Rebon and Nick Trueba both shot a 43, which tied them for 20th. Shawn Griffin and Jeff Hawley both carded 44s, which tied them for 22nd.

Thursday at Desert Canyon, the Tiger boys finished 14 out of 24 teams, shooting a 346, 44 shots behind Eagle, which won the event with a 302 total. Centennial beat Bishop Kelly in a playoff to take second, after they tied at 313. Meridian came in at 314, and Capital, with Brad Tensen earning medalist honors with a 70, finished fifth at 315.

Matt Rippy of Timberline finished second with a 72, and Joe Panzoni of Mountain View won a four-way playoff for third, with a 73.

Jeff Hawley led the Mountain Home golfers, shooting a 78, which tied him for 16th. Shawn Griffin carded an 82, which tied him for 30th. Ryan Barrett, from the Tiger JV squad that finished 23rd in the team standings, had the next best score for Mountain Home, shooting an 89. Joe Rebon and Mitch Thomas had their problems in the wind, both shooting a 93.

Tiger golf coach Scott Mederios talked about the boys' efforts at their home meet.

"Not bad. Our number one (Joe Rebon) didn't have his best day, and that happens. It's a windy day and sometimes the ball just carries. Our number two, Jeff Hawley, shot pretty well, and anytime you're in the low 80s or high 70s, that's good for what we have right now.

"They just don't have the time that the Andersons (Nick and Matt, former Mountain Home High School golfers) put in. You have to start young and put in your time, and when we get a junior program going, that's when you'll start seeing our scores in the high 200s team-wise, and that's what we want.

"Right now, we're in the mid 300s. It's acceptable, but that's what we're working on."

The Tigers were at Boise Ranch yesterday (Tuesday), and go to Banbury in Eagle tomorrow (Thursday).