Sep 29, 2016 4 min read

SEWICKLEY HEIGHTS – Without question, the golfer who had the longest wait in Thursday’s WPIAL Class AA Golf Championships was Austin Lis.

The senior from Burgettstown High School came in with the seventh group in a field of 15 with an iffy score of 11-over par 81 over the 6,143-yard hilly course on a rainy afternoon at Allegheny Country Club.

Would he be one of the 16 qualifiers?

It took nearly an hour for him to find out he was, finishing in 15th place.

“It was a good, long wait,” said Lis. “I wasn’t too confident coming off 18. I didn’t think it would be enough.”

Lis was one of five area golfers to advance to the PIAA West Region Tournament Oct. 17 at Tom’s Run Golf Course in Blairsville. The other four were Colin Chapman and Hunter Donahue from McGuffey, Aaron Yorio of Waynesburg and Christian Sadler of Bentworth.

Skyler Fox, a freshman from Riverside, won the gold medal with a 2-over 72. He became the first champion in Riverside’s history.

Fox stepped into the lead when Jason Li, a senior from Sewickley Academy and the defending champion, had a quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-4 14th. Still, Fox birdied 17th and nearly holed out a chip shot on 18 to force a playoff. Li finished tied for second with Tyler Brinker of South Park at 3-over par.

“I was pretty confident coming in,” said Fox. “I felt I was playing good enough to win.”

McGuffey had a strong effort with Chapman, a senior who shot 4-over 84 that was good enough for a tie for fourth place; and Donahue, a junior who shot 78 and tied for 11th place.

Donahue hovered at the top of the leaderboard until a double-bogey 5 on the par-3 15th. Donahue played the par-3s in 8-over-par.

“I played really well, except for the par 3s,” Donahue said. “That nearly killed me. I wanted to stay below the hole. The greens were really fast. I made some mental changes in my game. I used to get down on myself after a bad shot. I tried to stop doing that.”

Chapman was 2-over heading into the final two holes and had a chance to win. But bogeys on Nos. 17 and 18, both par-4s, put him tied for fourth.

“I had 31 putts and that’s what saved me,” said Chapman. “The main thing I needed to get down was the speed of the greens. That’s what ultimately saved me. This was my best round because it moved me on to (regionals).”

Yorio, a junior from Waynesburg, had the shot of the day, getting a hole-in-one on the par-3, 130-yard No. 15 hole that helped him move on to the regional tournament. His 9-iron shot hit above the hole and spun back into the cup for his first ace.

“I’ve come really close before,” Yorio said. “I’ve been inches. I definitely needed that because it wasn’t looking good til then. I was on the bubble until that happened.”

Sadler, a junior, birdied the par-3 15th, which secured his spot of qualifiers.

“I shot a bad 79 because I missed some short putts, some par putts I needed to make, but I hit the ball pretty good,” said Sadler. “I kind of realized upper 70s would be pretty close. So I knew I was close.”

The toughest finish went to California’s Nate Luketich, who finished tied for 16th and required a playoff with Josh Redding of Southmoreland for the final berth to the regional tournament. Redding birdied the first playoff hole, No. 1, thanks to a bunker shot that ended up four inches from the hole. Luketich will serve as an alternate, meaning he can get in if another player who finished ahead of him pulls out.

“Three holes killed me,” said Luketich, who had double-bogeys on the par-4 No. 2, a triple on the par-4 16th and a double on the par-4 18th. “On 16, I lost my tee shot … and on 18, I had a few putting mistakes.”