Carson golf wins sixth straight league tournament

GENOA - There weren't many high-fives being exchanged by members of the Carson High golf team after its sixth straight Sierra League tournament win Tuesday afternoon at Genoa Lakes Golf Resort.

The Senators, led by Jimmy Potter's 76 and a 78 by Scott Jenkins, shot 394 to beat second-place Reno by 21 shots. South Tahoe was third with 445 and Douglas was fourth at 450.

"This was just the first step (goal) for this team," Carson coach Rod Butler said in a business-like manner. "Now, hopefully we can do something at zone.

"I wouldn't consider this a great score today, but this is a tough course. They played well overall. Everybody had some problems, but we still posted a decent score."

Carson has played like a team all year. Whenever somebody has an off day, somebody else steps up and scores well.

J.T. Cockerill, who celebrated his 18th birthday on Tuesday, woke up sick and struggled to a 79. Reliable Matt Mitchell soared to an 84. No problem. Potter stepped up with a 76 and Spencer Brinson carded a 79.

"I'm proud of that," Butler said, referring to Brinson's 79. "He's come through a couple of times when we've needed him to post a good score. Both Jimmy and Spencer came through."

Potter recorded four birdies, two on each nine.

On the par-4 281-yard 4th, he drove the green with a 3-wood and lipped out a 10-foot eagle putt and tapped in for a birdie. On the 574-yard par-5 9th, Potter used a driver and 4-iron to reach the green and two-putted from 20 feet.

On the downhill 482-yard par-4 14th, Potter flubbed his drive, but pounded a 3-wood into the greenside bunker, blasted out and made a 10-foot birdie putt. On the 515-yard par-5 18th, Potter powered a 4-iron onto the green and then lipped out another eagle putt.

"I played good obviously, but I had a lot of bad holes," Potter said.

Jenkins, who has been solid all year, very easily could have beaten Wooster's Bobby McCracken for medalist honors had he not suffered through three double-bogeys.

"I could have been five shots better," Jenkins said. "Coming off a 74 at Plumas (on Saturday), I was feeling good. I like this course. I didn't drive the ball well. I was spraying it left and right, but getting down for pars though."

A bad chip and a three-putt from 15 feet resulted in a double-bogey on the 447-yard par-4 2nd. He tried to drive the 281-yard par-4 4th, but his tee shot buried in the bunker, and it took two shots to get out and then he three-putted again. On the 348-yard par-4 12th, he flubbed a shot and missed a 5-foot putt to save bogey.

Cockerill's only birdie came on the 177-yard par-3 11th, but he gave that shot back with a double-bogey on the 18th. When he came in from his round, he looked like death warmed over and went to the school van to relax.

"I felt fine last night," Cockerill said. "I woke up this morning with the shivers and a temperature of a 100-plus."

The illness affected all phases of Cockerill's game. He did bang some pretty impressive drives at times, but his putting was way off. He needed 39 putts for his round.

Zack Rispin shot about what Butler expected him to shoot.

"I was striking the ball all right," Rispin said. "From tee to green, I played pretty well. My putting was horrible, though. Thirty-four putts and two chip-ins. I missed four or five 3-footers, and two of them were birdie putts."

Like his teammates, Rispin had success on the 281-yard par-4. He drove the green with a 3-wood and two-putted from 25 feet. He had a chip-in birdie on the 485-yard 13th hole and followed that with a chip-in eagle on the 482-yard 14th.

According to Butler, Brinson was 5-over-par after his first four holes, but played the last 14 holes in just 2-over-par.

Mitchell may have been the most disappointed of all the Senators. His 84 was one of the highest he's posted all year.

"I'm struggling a lot right now," Mitchell said. "My swing the past couple of weeks hasn't been consistent at all."

Mitchell, who started at No. 8 in the shotgun format, drove the ball 300-plus on the first two holes but was only able to par the holes. On the par-4 10th, his approach shot on the 401-yard hole, was about five yards off the green. He did scramble for par, however.

After a two-putt par on the par-3 11th, Mitchell dropped a stroke on No. 12 when he put his approach shot into the greenside bunker, blasted out short of the green and got up and down for bogey.

Following a par at the par-5 482-yard 14th, Mitchell dropped another shot to par at the 15th thanks to a short drive which left him more than 300 yards from the flag. At No. 16, he three-putted to fall to 3-over-par.

The 165-yard 17th was a disaster. He left his tee shot in some mud just short of the green. He bladed his approach shot and suffered through another three-putt green.

Mitchell turned it around on the 18th with a 10-foot birdie putt to get to 4-over-par.

Problems returned on the front side. He doubled the 212-yard par-3 5th, bogeyed the par-4, 478-yard 6th hole and tripled the 144-yard 7th hole, his finishing hole for the day. He was 7-over-par on the par-3 holes.

Notes: The zone tournament is at Ruby View Golf Club in Elko, and the 36-hole tournament will be held Tuesday and Wednesday. Tee times start at 9 a.m. on Tuesday ... Butler said that Fallon and Galena appear to be the most consistent teams on the High Desert side, but that Elko and Spanish Springs have shot some nice scores ... Carson, South Tahoe, Douglas and Reno will represent the Sierra League. The top two teams and five individuals on nonadvancing teams qualify for this year's state tournament in Southern Nevada.