By Stephen Henderson

Patrick County High School golfer Daniel Smith placed 13th in the State 3A Tournament held last Tuesday and Wednesday at Glenrochie Country Club in Abingdon. He shot a 79 on Tuesday and 82 on Wednesday for a total of 161 to finish 13th out of 44 players in the tournament.

Abingdon won the team title; Rockbridge County was second and New Kent was third. Connor Creasy of Abingdon was the individual winner; he shot a 138.

“I am proud of Daniel—he played a good, solid round of golf,” said Coach Philip Steagall.

“I was pretty excited about making it to the state tournament,” said Daniel Smith. “I played pretty good on the first day but struggled a lot the second day,” he said.

Smith attributes his improvement in the game with a great deal of practice. “I have improved right much this season,” he said.

One thing Smith worked on this season was his tee shot. “I tried to hit the ball straighter,” he said.

He sees the offseason as a time to continue to improve his game.

According to Steagall, it has been six years since a Cougar played in the state golf tournament—that was Tyler Shough.

“We had a very good season this year, starting out with a third-place finish in our first match,” he said.

The Cougars cut their team score from 340 to 333 for an average this season. “We managed to cut and shave a few points off our average this season,” he said. “We played better as the season progressed,” he added.

The Cougars have two seniors on this year’s team; there are five juniors returning next season. “We are looking for a lot of good things from those juniors next year,” Steagall concluded.