The Latrobe JV Golf team headed out to Meadowink golf course, home of the Franklin Regional Panthers on September 13, 2023 for the 21st annual Panther Cup. This tournament consists of six golfers from five schools: Latrobe, Franklin Regional, Kiski, Fox Chapel, and Pine Richland. Each golfer got paired up with one of their teammates to match up against two golfers from one of the five schools.
Each pair of golfers played 18 holes Ryder Cup style. The first six holes, every golfer played their own ball and the golfer from each team with the better score was used for that hole.
The next six holes were alternate shots. Each golfer hit every other shot on the hole, on and off with their teammate. The last six holes were match play. Every golfer played their own ball in a match against an individual golfer from the opposing team.
The way to earn points was to win the hole. In the first 12 holes the group with the better score in their individual matches got a point and if tied both groups got .5 points. The last six holes were scored the same way but there were two points available on every hole, one for each individual one-on-one match. At the end of all groups rounds, each group from their school tallied up the points they got and it went towards an overall team score.
Ryan Baughman, Gia Petrazio, Dale Henigin, Landon Halula, Rylan Linhart, Carly Wissinger, Alex Amond, and Sam Enfinger represented Latrobe.
Ryan and Gia had an individual match against the top two players from Franklin Regional that day. Ryan and Gia started their match out very well with the better score format. They lost hole 1 when Franklin Regionals group birdied and they bogeyed, but a Birdie and Par from Ryan on the next two holes gave Ryan and Gia the lead going into hole 4. Hole 4 a bogey from both teams split the score and Ryan and Gia held the lead going into the last 2 holes of the better score format. Ryan and Gia tied and lost the last 2 holes in better score and moved into the alternate shot format tied. The alternate shot format was the teams downfall as they came out of this format down 8 to 4. The first hole in the individual match play format was great for Ryan and Gia as they both won this hole over their opponent and earned the team 2 points. After this though a win on a hole and a tie on a hole from Ryan were the final points to come out of their group. They finished the round contributing 7.5 points to the team as Franklin regionals group earned 16.5 points.
The next group to tee off for Latrobe was Rylan and Carly against a group from Pine Richland. A solid first few holes for the group kept them in their match. Unfortunately alternate shot was once again the downfall for the group as they were down big coming out of that format. It didn’t get much better in the individual matches and Rylan and Carly earned the team 6 points while the Pine Richland group earned their school 18 points.
Teeing off next for the Wildcats was Dale and Landon up against a group from Fox Chapel. Dale and Landon had a solid start with the better score format and struggled a little with the alternate shot format but ultimately moved into the back 9 holes only down a few. The Individual matches were much better for Dale and Landon as they were able to win some of those points and come out of their round with 6.5 points for the team. The group from Fox Chapel was able to earn 17.5 points.
The last group to tee off was Alex and Sam’s group against two golfers from Kiski. The day got off to a rough start on the first tee box with the group’s drives, as one of them hit a tree and bounced backwards into the parking lot. Alex and Sam continued to fight all day but at the end of their round they had earned 3 points and the golfers from Kiski had earned 21 points.
The final scores of the tournament had Latrobe in 5th with 23 points on the day. The winners of the tournament were the hosts the Franklin Regional Panthers with around 80 points on the day. It was a rough round for the Latrobe team on the course but they had a lot of fun getting the chance to play in the unique format.
At Latrobe’s 3rd spot, Junior Dale Henigin said, “Even though we had a rough day as a team, I had a lot of fun playing in the tournament’s format and I’m glad I got the chance to play in this event.”
