Tiger golfers finally see play which counts

GIRARD -- Neither Fort Scott High nor Uniontown were able to field full teams at the Girard Invitational here Thursday. This was the first official action for the FSHS golf team and just the second for Uniontown after the Fort Scott Invitational was rained out Tuesday.

Each team sent just three golfers to the tournament, which saw individual and team honors taken by Carl Junction, Mo. Adysen Mertens was the only individual to shoot under 90 as she recorded a 39 on the front nine and a 46 on the back for a score of 85.

Carl Junction shot 412 as a team to finish well ahead of Columbus, which shot 443. Joplin was third with a 468.

Cassie Ogran was Fort Scott's low scorer with a 57-57--114, which tied for 11th place. Adrianne Tourtillott was next for the Tigers with her 60-55--115, which tied for 15th. Kacie Brown shot 61-64--125 to finish tied for 25th.

"It was a very long day of golfing," Fort Scott head coach Karen Curran said. "It started wet, cool and cloudy and finished humid, hot and sunny. Cassie and Adrianne were both just 2-3 strokes from medaling and they would have liked to have done a little better. But now they know what parts of their game need the most attention in practice."

Kiersten Elder shot 56-67--123 for Uniontown to tie for 22nd place. The other two Eagle golfers, Emily Pulliam and Raven Hixon, played the front nine then withdrew under head coach Alan Shinn's orders as they are both young golfers whom he felt needed experience but were not yet ready to play 18 holes.

"Kiersten lost a lot of strokes to the rest of the field on her approach shots," Shinn said. "She was very tentative on those shots. She left most of them short."

Pulliam shot a 79, which Shinn said was 17 strokes better than her previous best. Hixon finished with a 99.

Both Fort Scott and Uniontown will play in a tournament at Sunny Meadows Golf Course in Moran Tuesday. In addition, Uniontown will take part in a nine-hole tournament at Eureka today.