Photo by Brian Hoffman.
The Lord Botetourt golfers tied for third among 23 teams in the John Scott Heritage Invitational tournament in Lynchburg Monday. The annual season-opening tournament was held at the par 72 London Downs Golf Club.
Blacksburg won the tournament with a team score of 301, led by a 71 by Davis Young. Nick Rakes of Rustburg was the medalist with a 70 and Garnet Manley III of Jefferson Forest also had 71 as Forest finished second at 307.
Lord Botetourt and George Wythe tied for third place at 310. Botetourt was led by Samir Davidov, who tied for fourth individually with a 74. Also scoring for LB were Kaitlyn Mosdell at 76, Ashton Harper at 79 and Kyle Lograsso with an 81.
“That wasn’t bad for the first tournament,” said LB coach Todd Smith. “We have four golfers who are pretty solid.”
James River also competed in the tournament and finished 18th as a team with two sophomores and two freshmen. Ryan Steger led the Knights with an 85.
“Ryan is a freshman and I expect him to lead the team this year,” said River coach Donna Cox.
Sophomore Silas Miller was next for River with a 91, while Joey Schroeder and Lacey Kessler rounded out the scoring as River came in at 396.
“I’m looking for that score to decrease throughout the season,” said Cox. “We have the potential to be a very good team.”
Both Botetourt County teams will tee it up again today when the annual Bob McLelland Metro Tournament begins at Blue Hills. The first tee-times are at 12:30 p.m. Thursday’s round is at the Blacksburg Country Club.
Around a dozen teams will compete, and Blacksburg comes in as the favorite after winning the John Scott Tournament. The Bruins won both the Heritage and Metro tournaments last season.
Botetourt is hoping to contend. The Cavaliers play Blue Hills often but rarely play at Blacksburg, and that might make it tough to overtake the talented Bruins on the second day.
“They have a pretty strong team, but we only lost to them by nine strokes on Monday,” said Smith of the Blacksburg golfers. “I’d like our chances a lot better if the second day wasn’t on their home course.”
