Panther men’s golf are frontrunners in the Mountain Seven.
On Wednesday, April 9, the team traveled to Sky Valley Country Club for Round 1 of the Mountain Seven Conference Tournament. With strong outings from each of its top five players, Franklin ended the day in first place.
“We won the match, which obviously puts us in first place for the round. But, we’ve got two more rounds to go, so it’s not over yet,” said head coach Ryan Raby of his team’s effort in Georgia. “Max [McClure] was the medalist, so he won the match with a two-under-par round of 70, and Tanner [Jones] finished second [among Panthers] with a two-over at 74. I think Cole [Martin] was seventh place overall, so we had first, third and seventh.”
Three strokes ahead of Pisgah junior Matthew Mehaffey (73), McClure was the conference’s only player to finish under par, with Jones just one stroke behind his fellow junior. With a nine-over par 81, Martin became Franklin’s third player in the round’s top 10, with Nico Abbate (90) and Gabe Stilwell (92) rounding out the Panther card.
As a team Franklin’s four lowest scores added up to 315 strokes, narrowly edging out Pisgah’s 319 for first. Following the round less than 30 minutes south of Franklin, the tournament now moves closer to Pisgah’s home turf.
“We’ll go over to Etowah next Monday and play our practice round, and get a good feel for the course,” said Raby of Round 2 at Etowah Valley Golf Club. “It’s important that the kids look and learn and not just go for a recreational trip, but actually take that as an opportunity to learn and study the course. … We had a nine-hole match there earlier in the season, but from what I understand Etowah sold those nine holes, so obviously that’s not going to be part of this. So, we haven’t really been on the course itself for the last two years. From what I understand the greens are in pretty good shape, and we’ll just have to see how everything else is, but it can be a tough layout.”
Following the recent sale of part of its 27-hole course, Etowah presents unfamiliar terrain for the Panthers, giving their April 14 practice round outsized importance. Between Round 2 April 22 and Round 3 at Waynesville Inn and Golf Club April 23, Raby said his team will need to continue their consistent focus.
“We’ve got the practice round next Monday, we’ve got the entire week next week, and as of right now we don’t have anything else on the schedule,” he said.