High school golf regions, state advancement procedure adjusted
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association voted Tuesday to approve a new state championship advancement protocol and new regional alignment in golf as part of an effort to improve pace of play at its state tournament.
Both boys’ and girls’ golf will have 12 regions with uniformity between them — i.e., a school will be in the same region for both genders. Previously boys’ golf had 12 regions and girls’ golf had 11 regions, and uniformity did not exist between regions (Lexington’s boys competed in the 9th Region while the city’s girls competed in the 7th Region).
The top two teams from each region, as well as the next four lowest individual scorers not from one of those two teams, will advance to the state tournament. Teams now will only be allowed to take their top four team scorers to the state tournament; previously all five golfers on a team were eligible to compete in the state tournament, and the lowest score between the No. 4 and No. 5 golfers was used on each day of the two-day event to generate a team score.
A team’s No. 5 golfer at region may still qualify for the state tournament as an individual if his or her score is low enough. Additionally, coaches can elect to sub out their fifth-best performing golfer from the region event for any of the other four golfers who qualified for state as part of the team, but the golfer who was replaced may not compete at state as an individual.
“I think desire when (the board) first started talking about this golf (tournament), was that the fifth player in a lot of situations was the cause of the pace of play problem,” Tackett said. “They’re just not as good. Now, you’ve got elite programs where their fifth player could be the No. 1 on some teams, and for that more power to ’em, but by and large that’s not the case. ... I think what you will see, with just taking the four and another at-large qualifier, is you’re gonna see a better golfer take the place, in most cases, of a less-talented golfer.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2019 at 12:18 PM.
