The Starting Five

Only four Washington County golfers qualified for the second round of the Maryland state tournament which concludes with the second round on Wednesday.
Smithsburg’s Chris Bushey and A.J. Minnich, North Hagerstown’s Aaron Staley and Williamsport’s Zach Weber all made the cut.
Bushey had the third-best score on Tuesday with his 6-over par-79, but that leaves him 5 strokes behind the co-leaders. Bart George, of Broadneck, shot his 74 on Monday in the 4A/3A portion and Middletown’s Alex Hoffman shot a 74 on Tuesday.
Others ahead of Bushey are Linganore freshman Ryan Cole (76), Andrew Yakubik of Damascus and Ryan Triller of North Harford (77) and Randy Callahan of C.M. Wright (78).
It’s not unheard of to come from 5 strokes behind… We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
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The weather was fabulous on Tuesday and the forecast for Wednesday is for more of the same — a sunny sky, gentle breeze and temps that will top out at 70 as the players move thru the middle part of their round.
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As Smithsburg coach Dan Neff said in our golf preview, the Leopards needed to get scoring from the No. 3 and 4 players in order to contend for a team title, but it didn’t happen. Matt Snowden shot 113 and Kyle Huntzberry a 102. It was the first state competition for Huntzberry as a freshman and he figures to do in the future what A.J. Minnich did.
Last year, Minnich shot a 100 in his first state showing and shaved 17 strokes off that number on Tuesday to qualify. My guess is Huntzberry will plug along at the game and do the same.
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There is no official word yet on the state tournament returning to The University of Maryland next year. It has been held at Potomac Ridge here in Waldorf the past two seasons while the Terps’ course has undergone rennovations.
There is also a discussion on several adjustments being made to the qualifying procedures and possibly a change of the district date and addition of a regional. In this case, it would likely get my endorsement. Changes need to be made.