WOODLAND — Dane Huddleston had a definite home-course advantage Wednesday at the Prairie Invitational, and it’s not just because Lewis River Golf Course in Woodland High School’s home course.
“I’ve played it my whole life, pretty much,” said Huddleston, who lives near the course along the Lewis River.
But that doesn’t dimmish the round he put together on Wednesday.
Huddleston shot a 5-under 67 to win the Prairie Invitational by nine shots.
“This is my best round out here, actually, believe it or not” he said. “For how many times I’ve played here, this is my best round ever.”
But Huddleston couldn’t help but think it could have been better. He made the turn after shooting a 6-under 30 on the front nine.
“Yeah, I kind of slowed down a little bit on the back,” he said. “I got a little nervous, a little antsy. But it was fine. I just kept my composure even though I didn’t play as well as I did on the front.”
His Woodland teammate Logan Autrey place second with a 75, and Mountain View’s Grady Millar was third at 76.
Columbia River, led by a 78 from Ryan Snyder and a 79 by Jack Kendrick, won the team title with a score of 321, outdistancing Mountain View (324) and Skyview (330).
Favorite Camas placed fourth with 337, but the Papermakers played without their No. 1 player, Eli Huntington, who was travelling east with family on Wednesday. Huntington’s mother is attending a reunion of her graduating class at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and his brother Owen was slated to play golf for the U.S. Naval Academy against the University of Connecticut this weekend.
“It was a perfect storm of events,” Camas coach Ed Givens said. “Eli said to me ‘I can stay. I can play.’ But I told him to go. In five years, what is he going to remember – a special weekend with his family or a high school golf tournament?”
