GREENFIELD — The 2024 Hancock County Boys Golf Tournament proved two things.
High school boys golf across the county is in a good place, and it’s just going to continue to get better.
On Wednesday, at Hawk’s Tail Golf Course in Greenfield, New Palestine took home the title with a team score of 156. Greenfield-Central was just behind them with a 162, Mt. Vernon was third with a 165 and Eastern Hancock rounded out the field with a 179.
The individual county medal went to Mt. Vernon freshman Elijah Lemmon after a two-hole playoff with New Palestine’s Joey McPike. Each shot a one-under-par 35.
“The county scores the last couple of years have been coming down as a whole,” New Palestine head coach Chris Story said. “All the teams are continuing to get better and better and it’s making it tougher to win these bigger events like this, so when you do it’s pretty cool.”
New Palestine’s winning score was 16 shots better than their score at last year’s tournament and was nine shots better than last year’s winning score of 165 by Greenfield-Central. The Cougars and Mt. Vernon each improved by three shots, while Eastern Hancock was 42 strokes better.
“From last year to this year it’s been exponentially better. We played better this year, but we won last year. That goes to tell you the level of talent in the county,” Greenfield-Central head coach Cliff Henderson said. “New Pal has come a long way, Eastern Hancock has come a long way, and Mt. Vernon has been good for a while, and they’re only going to get better. It’s an impressive thing to be a part of.”
McPike’s 35 led the Dragons, but it was consistent scoring across the lineup that helped them secure the top spot.
“We told the guys to give us a score around 40 and we thought we’d have a shot,” Story said. “We got underneath that today.”
Ty Mitchell, the team’s fifth golfer, shot a season-best 40 to tie Nick Barada for the Dragons second-best round. Based off of a scorecard tiebreaker, Barada earned the last top-five all-county spot. The team’s No. 1, Luke Cofer, fired a 41.
“It’s still very competitive. There are so many guys that are close to cracking that top five and I think that makes us better as a team because it forces everybody to continue to improve. If you don’t show up and practice well, you’re going to get passed up,” Story said. “Ty Mitchell in our five spot today had his best round of the year and really gutted it out.”
After finishing his nine holes under par, McPike went out to the playoff against Lemmon and was just as good. He parred both of the playoff holes, No. 1 and No. 2, just like he did earlier in the tournament.
“Joey had an outstanding round,” Story said. “He was right there in a shootout for first place, but just came up a bit short.”
Lemmon, who bogeyed the opening hole during his round, scrambled for par to force a second playoff hole and then birdied the second hole to walk away with the top spot in his first high school season.
To kick off the playoff hole, McPike striped his drive down the middle of the fairway, while Lemmon went left and into the trees.
With the ball still in play, Lemmon hooked his second shot around the trees and up near the green. After executing a perfect flop shot, he sunk the par putt to stay alive.
On No. 2, he made it stress-free.
A good drive and second shot allowed him to two-putt for the birdie and the win.
“Eli plays well above his years. His golf IQ is exceptionally high. He struggled with some of his long game today but he knows how to play around his struggles and get through them,” Mt. Vernon head coach Tom Kirby said. “He hits a wild drive, hits his next shot around the trees, hits a flop shot, makes the putt, and then closes it out.”
While the Marauders were able to walk away with the individual county win, the absence of two of their top-five players — Nils Erkmanis and Brady Pearson — affected the team score.
Asher Cotton fired the Marauders second best score with a 41, Jace Lugar from the No. 4 spot shot a 44 and Owen Daugherty from the No. 5 spot shot a 45.
“We were short a couple of guys that would normally help us, so I’m not terribly disappointed in what we did today,” Kirby said. “We’re going to be ready come sectional time though.”
Greenfield-Central’s Tyler Young and Corbin Elliott each shot 38 to earn all-county spots. Young’s 38 matched his last season score which earned him first place.
Avery Young carded a 42 and Jon Smith shot a 44 to complete the Cougars runner-up score.
“We looked better than we’ve looked in a while,” Henderson said. “Our No. 5 did his job, and even did a little better than what we were hoping for. Our No. 1 and No. 3 played really well and our No. 2 is getting to where he needs to be. We like to see the progress and it’s only going to get better from here.”
The biggest improvement and proof that golf across the county is on the uptick came from Eastern Hancock. After a 221 last year, the Royals shot a team score of 179 with underclassmen making up a majority of the lineup.
Sophomore Parker Atkins shot a 41, sophomore Zachary Stephens carded a 46, and sophomore Jacob Jackson shot a 48. Junior Corey Leece rounded out the scoring with a 44.
“Right now we have four sophomores and a junior as our top five. Last year, the majority were freshmen and inexperienced. It’s just having a whole extra year under our belt, and now we got a new practice facility inside where we’ve been able to work a lot harder over the offseason,” Eastern Hancock head coach Cody Hibbert said. “The biggest thing is that we’re really dialed in a lot more this year and we see that they can compete. We’re disappointed with this score even though it’s 42 shots better than last year, but we’re just hoping to keep improving and be able to be in the mix next year.”
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2024 Hancock County Boys Golf Tournament
Team Scores: New Palestine 156, Greenfield-Central 162, Mt. Vernon 165, Eastern Hancock 179
All-County: *Elijah Lemmon (Mt. Vernon) 35, Joey McPike (New Palestine) 35, Corbin Elliott (Greenfield-Central) 38, Tyler Young (Greenfield-Central) 38, Nick Barada (New Palestine) 40
*won a two-hole playoff for first place
New Palestine (156): Joey McPike 35, Nick Barada 40, Ty Mitchell 40, Luke Cofer 41, Josiah Kissel 44.
Greenfield-Central (162): Corbin Elliott 38, Tyler Young 38, Avery Young 42, Jon Smith 44, Andrew Munden 50.
Mt. Vernon (165): Elijah Lemmon 35, Asher Cotton 41, Jace Lugar 44, Owen Daugherty 45, Drew Lowder 47.
Eastern Hancock (179): Parker Atkins 41, Corey Leece 44, Zachary Stephens 46, Jacob Jackson 48, Connor Cook 52.
