How to win a region title: 1 towel, 2 shirts and 3 trips to the final hole

Jansen Preston on Thursday arrived at Kearney Hill Golf Links wearing a blue-and-gray shirt, black shoes and a black hat with a white “PING” logo across the front and sides.

He left the course in a white-and-gray shirt, white shoes and a hat with the same signage but reversed color scheme. His pocket was heavier too, as it carried the individual titlist medal from the 2018 9th Region boys’ golf championship.

Preston prevailed through rain, falling temperatures and a two-hole playoff to help lead Lexington Christian Academy to this year’s team title. He shot a 2-under-70 in regulation to force an extra hole against Madison Central’s Clay Pendergrass, and then exchanged birdies with Pendergrass on that hole to force a second playoff. Preston got on the green with his third shot and birdied to beat Pendergrass by a stroke his third time on No. 18, a par-5.

LCA shot a 287 to best runner-up Madison Central by 13 strokes. Both teams advanced to the Leachman Buick-GMC-Cadillac/KHSAA State Golf Tournament next weekend in Bowling Green. Parker Clarke (Henry Clay), Tyler Hart (Lafayette) and Brody Webb (Scott County) qualified for state as individuals.

Preston was inches short on a birdie putt that would have clinched the individual title in regulation. That was nowhere close to his biggest blunder Thursday.

“It’s very important to stay dry all day. You gotta have a bunch of towels, and I only had one, so that was a mistake,” Preston said with a laugh. “I thought that’d be all I needed. A little mental error there.”

The tournament was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was moved to Thursday because of poor weather conditions earlier this week. Rain wasn’t in the forecast until Thursday morning, and a steady drizzle affected the leaders through most of the front nine before getting heavier on the back. A 30-minute delay went into effect at about 2:30. Precipitation was much calmer after the delay, but there was a noticeable drop in temperature on an already nippy day.

“I changed pretty much a whole wardrobe,” Preston said. “Everything was wet.”

LCA won its third state title last season behind a performance that earned Preston an individual title. A repeat is on the Eagles’ minds.

“Once we go to state, we’ve just got to map the course correctly like we did last year and everything will be good,” Preston said. “I’ve heard it’s supposed to rain a lot, too, so we’ve just got to be prepared. Bring more towels.”

Young chief

Had he won, Pendergrass, an eighth-grader, would have been the youngest titlist in the current iteration of the 9th Region and the youngest Lexington-area regional winner in at least 20 years. He too had a chance to win in regulation, but bogeyed No. 18 in a group that played it about 20 minutes before Preston’s.

It’d be easy to mistake Pendergrass for an upperclassman: He’s 6-foot-3 and was not shy in front of a camera.

“Jansen Preston’s a great player, so I’d have to play pretty well to beat him and came up a little short in the end,” Pendergrass said. “ ... Bogeying 18 was pretty bad. I knew I had a chance to win it going into 18 there. It didn’t work out like that but I’m definitely still proud of that, and it would have been really cool if I could have pulled that off.”

Pendergrass didn’t travel with Madison Central to last year’s state tournament. He’ll likely be the most-talked-about Indian when the team next week makes its sixth trip since 2011.

“That’s gonna be awesome,” Pendergrass said. “I didn’t get to go last year, so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully we can play good down there.”

9th Region Boys’ Golf Championship

(All members from the top two teams advance to state; x-individual state qualifier)

Teams—1. Lexington Christian Academy 287, 2. Madison Central 300, 3. Scott County 309, 4. Lafayette 315, 5. Paul Laurence Dunbar 327, 6. Henry Clay 335, 7. Model Lab School 345, 8. Franklin County 356, 9. Lexington Catholic 357, 10. Sayre 362, 11. Woodford County 368, 12. Frederick Douglass 371, 13. Western Hills 400, 14. Madison Southern 411, t15. Bryan Station 460, t15. Clark County 460

Top 10 individuals—1. Jansen Preston, LCA, 70; 2. Clay Pendergrass, Madison Central, 70; t3. Jackson LaLonde, LCA, 71; t3. Cayden Pope, LCA, 71; t3. x-Brody Webb, Scott County, 71; t3. Blake Maupin, Madison Central, 71; t7. x-Tyler Hart, Lafayette, 75; t7. x-Parker Clarke, Henry Clay, 75; t7. Andrew Marrs, LCA, 75; 10. Alexander Bassell, LCA, 76

This story was originally published September 27, 2018 at 7:39 PM.