Graham Moody nearly ended his high school career with a perfect shot.
From off the 18th green at Club Green Meadows, the Mountain View senior hit a chip that rimmed out of the hole. Moody had almost wrapped up his third consecutive 3A boys golf district title with an eagle.
“That would have been pretty sweet,” Moody said. “It was a fun, awesome four years. That would have been an incredible way to finish it off. But nonetheless, it’s always good to finish with a birdie.”
Moody’s tap-in birdie on Thursday capped a two-day tournament where he shot back-to-back 73s. His score of 2-over gave him the district title by eight shots over teammate Willie Yeh.
In an ideal world, Moody’s chip-in eagle would have gone in the hole.
In an ideal world, a state tournament would await Moody and the other golfers at Mountain View, which easily won the team title Thursday.
But with COVID-19 canceling state tournaments the past two springs, just playing golf was the equivalent of a tap-in birdie for Moody.
“It’s such a cool opportunity,” said Moody. “Even a couple weeks before we got the news that we could play, there was still some uncertainty surrounding what was going to happen. To get that senior season, which for a while we didn’t think we’d get the chance to have, is incredible.”
Moody won the 3A state tournament as a freshman then finished third as a sophomore. Mountain View would have been a top contender for the 3A state team title each of the last two years.
But Moody said he doesn’t play the “what-if” game.
“I just try to focus on the opportunities that we got,” said Moody, who has signed to play at the University of Wisconsin. “While it would have been cool to get a couple more state championship opportunities, I’m just glad we were able to play.”
Moody entered Day 2 two strokes behind Yeh. Moody trailed by four shots after he bogeyed the first hole, which Yeh birdied.
But Yeh ran into trouble on the par-3 fourth hole, where he posted a seven. Moody gradually extended his lead by avoiding trouble the entire round, shooting 1-over for the front nine and even-par on the back-nine.
Moody was particularly good on the par-5s, where he had two tap-in birdies and two pars.
4A DISTRICT TOURNAMENT
One day after firing a 3-under 69, Owen Huntington of Camas cruised to the district title at Tri-Mountain.
Huntington, a senior, finished the tournament at 2-under 142 to win by eight shots. Dustin Brooks of Skyview placed second.
Huntington’s younger brother, Eli, and teammate Evan Chen tied for third at 9-over 153. That helped Camas win the team title, 55 shots ahead of second-place Skyview. Caleb Shira placed sixth (157) and Cameron Miller eighth (160) for the Papermakers.
2A DISTRICT TOURNAMENT
Woodland’s Dane Huddleston had two days of 69s in his two rounds, dominating play at Mint Valley to take medalist honors at 4-under-par 138.
Cade Bringhurst of Ridgefield was three shots back with a 141 total. Jay Nickerson of R.A. Long was third at 145.
Columbia River won the team title with 177.5 points, with Ridgefield second (140.5) and Woodland third (113).
Columbia River’s top four golfers all placed in the top 10 overall: Alden Fay was fourth (149), Sam James was fifth (150), Jack Kendrick (152) was eighth, and Noah Larson was ninth (153).
