Next Monday, May 16, about 110 golfers from the smallest schools in Montana will converge on the Hamilton Golf Course for the State Class C golf tournament. Monday will be a practice day with the actual tournament running on Tuesday and Wednesday. Scott Marsh, Darby’s golf coach, is in charge of the tournament.
“This is a challenging course. It’s a little tougher than some of the courses the schools are used to playing on. We have more water hazards and out of bounds area than a lot of schools’ (home) courses. And we have more trees than some of the Eastern Montana courses,” he said.
There are quite a large number of Class C golfers according to Marsh. The tiny Eastern Montana schools tend to have golf as one of their sports where as in Western Montana, tennis is more popular. But he thinks the golf numbers are on the rise.
To qualify for the state tournament, a student golfer must have played and qualified on a regulation golf course, either 9 hole or 18 hole, with at least three teams present and ‘markers’ or official scorekeepers used to keep track of the scoring.
In Class C, a team is made up of three golfers. This is the first year ever for Darby to qualify as a team to go to the state tournament. This is the third year Darby has offered golf for the boys. Next year, Marsh hopes to have a girls’ golf team as well.
The three Tigers advancing on to play next week are Cory Valenzano, Brennan Fisher, and J.J. Horvath. This is the third year for Valenzano to play in the state tournament. Two years ago he finished 15, last year he was 10th and Marsh is hoping Valenzano will finish in the top five this year. Horvath only made it to two tournaments all year because he also plays for the Bitterroot Red Sox American Legion team.
It takes a lot of volunteers to put on a golf tournament of this size. Marsh estimates about 33-35 volunteers are needed each day. He has about 25 for each day right now and so still needs more. If you want to volunteer, please call Scott Marsh at Darby High School, 821-3252, or the Hamilton Golf Course at 363-4251.