FREDDY GONZALEZ | Valley Morning Star
Day 1 of the Region IV-4A golf tournament in Corpus Christi wrapped up Monday and the La Feria Lions found themselves in 10th place with a total score of 351, but just 10 strokes of moving up to sixth. Devine finished the day in first place with 320, Fredericksburg was second with 327 and Columbus rounded out the top three with a score of 331.
“The team started out slow in the morning, but after awhile the nerves cleared and they started to settle down,” said La Feria head coach David Briones. “Hopefully, we’ll start strong today to give us a chance to advance.
“Ben (Draper) played pretty well even though he was playing with the flu, while Andy Cortez started slow and had a rough day, but I have no doubt he will step it up on Day 2.”
Two individual athletes who gave themselves an opportunity to advance to the UIL state meet were Andy Cortez and Ben Draper.
Andy, who qualified for state last year, started strong but ran into difficulties heading into the back nine to finish the day with an 81.
“Today was honestly the time to score,” said Cortez. “Through the first nine it played easy, I just let the back nine get the best of me. I plan on being more focused Tuesday and improving on my score.”
Draper, on the other hand, started slow but finished strong to end the day with an 88.
“Today was a rough day for me,” said Draper. “At the beginning it was rough but after awhile I found my rhythm and finished strong.”
CLASS 6A: The Harlingen Cardinals finished Day 1 of the Region IV-6A tournament at Republic Golf Course in San Antonio in sixth place with a score 308.
The Cardinals were led by Dylan Martinez, Mikey Bullock and Nicholas Galvan, who shot 74, 75 and 76, respectively. Meanwhile, teammates Nate Newman and Sammy Rios came shot an 83 and 86, respectively.
Roy Hess of the Brownsville Herald contributed to this story