WOODLAND — Grady Millar went looking for his ball after hitting his drive on the No. 12 hole Tuesday at Lewis River Golf Course.
Millar then discovered that his ball had been played accidentally by another golfer.
So the Mountain View senior walked 250 yards back up the fairway to hit another drive. He ended up with par on the hole.
It turned out to be the biggest difficulty Millar would encounter as he rolled to a fourth consecutive title at the 3A boys District 4 golf tournament on Tuesday.
“I think I’m the only one in 3A to do that over the last however many years,” Millar said of his four district titles. “It feels great to know I’ve had that consistency throughout my game to do it four years in a row.”
Millar became the first Mountain View golfer to accomplish four district titles. Graham Moody, who played at Mountain View the preceding four years before Millar, only won three titles.
“Graham got clipped one year by one of his teammates,” Mountain View coach Dan Larson said.
Millar followed up Monday’s 1-under-par 71 with an even-par 72 for a 36-hole total of 143, winning the district title by eight strokes over teammate Spencer Moody and Kelso’s Rex Burt.
“I played solid,” Millar said. “There were some ups and downs. Lot of birdies out there, lot of good shots, lot of not-so-good shots. I just played pretty solid overall.”
It’s the kind of performance that Larson has come to expect from Millar.
“His ceiling is so, so high, and his floor is also really high,” Larson said. “Even on a bad day, he still comes in at a pretty good score. Sometimes I have to recalibrate what I perceived to be bad body language because that usually translates into a pretty good round. Even today, when he struggled on the back (nine), he turns around with a birdie, birdie on 15 and 16 to run away with another district title.”
With Millar and Moody leading the way, Mountain View claimed another district team title as the Thunder placed six golfers in the top eight — Braden Blanchard was fourth (154), Braden Kendrick fifth (158), Kaden Blanchard sixth (171) and Geoffrey France eighth (177).
With the fall portion of his senior golf season complete, Millar can look back fondly on his years golfing with Mountain View before he takes his game to the University of Washington next year.
“It’s always been great,” Millar said. “All of my teammates have supported each other through everything. And the coaches have been amazing to me and my teammates through the four years.”
