Franklin golfer Tanner Jones will compete for a state title.
Just one week after placing second there in Round 2 of the Mountain Seven Tournament, on May 6 the Panthers returned to Waynesville Inn and Golf Club for the 3A West Regional. There, Jones outscored all but one of his 83 opponents, punching his ticket to the State Championship May 12-13.
“We knew we had a tough challenge heading into today’s Regional tournament,” wrote head coach Ryan Raby later that evening in a public Facebook post. “Unfortunately we didn’t qualify for state as a team. We did, however, have the young man who finished tied for second overall. Tanner Jones played one heck of a gritty round. He had a couple bad holes but never let it keep him down. Every time he had a bad hole, he answered with a birdie or eagle. He finished in a four-way tie for second with a 73.”
Having placed fourth overall at Waynesville in the conference round April 28, Jones improved on his previous score of 75, shaving two strokes in the regional to finish just two over par. More familiar with the course than many of his foes from west of Asheville, the junior battled high winds throughout the day to turn in a masterful round.
“The winner shot a 66, which is smokin’ – I mean, that was amazing,” said Raby when reached for comment the following day. “Their coach told us at one point, he said, ‘You know, this kid has never won a thing in his life.’ He’s never won a golf match, he’s never won an amateur tournament, a conference tournament, a regional. He’d never won anything, and then he goes in there as a senior and shoots that. Those types of things happen few and far between to where you just absolutely play your best day ever in the biggest match of the year.”
Second only to a once-in-a-lifetime round from East Lincoln’s Jared Myers, Jones qualified for the 3A state tournament at Gates Four Golf and Country Club in Fayetteville. Elsewhere on the roster, senior Cole Martin turned in Franklin’s second-lowest round at 82 (tied for 31st overall), followed closely by senior Max McClure at 84 (T-37th). Sophomore Nico Abbate tied for 57th with an 89, while senior Gabe Stilwell rounded out Franklin’s card at 93 (T-68th).
As a team Franklin’s four lowest scores added up to 328, good for sixth out of 13 teams at the regional. While the Panthers had hoped for a top-three finish to qualify for state as a team, Raby said they were able to take revenge on a conference rival.
“I think they were disappointed that they didn’t come out and play their best round. Everybody wants to play their best round in the biggest and most consequential match of the year, but obviously it didn’t happen that way, and that’s just part of the game,” said Raby. “I’m not disappointed in them at all. I hate that they didn’t play their best, but man, I’m proud of them. They had a heck of a year, and the seniors had a heck of a career. … We did beat Pisgah though, so that was a little bit of a moral victory.”
Having placed second to Pisgah in the three-round Mountain Seven Tournament, Franklin was the conference’s highest finisher in Waynesville, outscoring both the seventh-place Black Bears (332) and host team Tuscola Mountaineers (11th, 353). The result capped three straight trips to the 3A West Regional for the team, of which McClure, Martin and Stilwell have been an integral part. Following the regional, Jones and his entourage turned their attention to state, planning a five-hour trip to Fayetteville on Saturday, May 10, ahead of a Sunday practice round and two-day tournament Monday and Tuesday.
“I think [for] every kid that comes along and plays high school golf, that’s the ultimate goal,” said Raby. “He’s made no bones about it since his freshman year, that, ‘That’s what I’m trying to do,’ and so to see it pay off is good. It’s obviously rewarding for him, but it’s also rewarding for me as well just because I know the amount of time he and his family both devote to the game.”