Brothers go back-to-back for a regional title
The joke was that Cameron Bassel would make it back-to-back Region 9 championships for the family after older brother Alexander took the boys’ golf crown last year.
Except that Cameron had never won a title of any kind.
That is, until Monday.
Cameron Bassel’s par-saving putt on the second playoff hole after a soggy, windy, all-around unpleasant day at the University Club of Kentucky’s Big Blue Course captured top individual honors as he and his Lexington Christian teammates also won their third team title in a row and with it a trip to next week’s state tournament in Bowling Green.
“Winning now, my senior year, it’s huge,” said Cameron Bassel, standing next to the par-3 17th hole after he jumped into his teammates. Brother Alexander also unexpectedly won the region title his senior year. “We always joked that we were going to go back-to-back. Now that it happened, it’s surreal.”
Bassel’s 1-under 71 tied him with Lexington Catholic’s Charlie Spinner, an eighth-grade phenom, after 18 holes. They were the only two players under par on a day filled with rain, wind and a half-hour delay due to flooding on a couple of greens.
“Normally, I don’t play super good out here, and I’ve played out here so many times,” Bassel said. Despite the conditions, “today it finally all connected. For me, it’s bigger for the team that the team won today. I care, but it’s bigger for me that the team won, and we get to play in state.”
Unfortunately for Cameron, his older brother will probably still have something over on him.
“He’ll probably bring up the fact that he shot like 4-under to win and I shot 1-under to win in a playoff,” Cameron said. “We’re always competitive like that, but he’ll be proud of me, especially since he’s been a lot more successful in golf than I’ve been. This is finally something for me to celebrate.”
LCA three-peat
LCA (301) edged Madison Central (305) by four strokes on the sister course to the one the Indians captured in last week’s All State Championship. Only the regional champion earns a bid to next week’s Leachman Buick GMC Cadillac/KHSAA State Golf Championship at Bowling Green Country Club, however. The top seven individuals outside the winning team also advance to state.
“That was a battle of the fittest,” LCA Coach Eric Geldhof said. “Our senior (Bassel) just came through at the end. We’ve been talking all year that he was ready to shoot a good score. And finally today, we just kept pumping him and he came through.”
Golf coaches rank their players for each tournament’s groupings based on how they’re playing. Bassel was LCA’s No. 3 man Monday, something that gives Geldhof a lot of confidence going into state.
“We’ll win every tournament if my three-man wins the (individual) tournament,” he said, laughing.
Runner-up
At the first tournament of the season, Lexington Catholic Coach Brendon Woody pointed out a skinny, left-handed eighth-grader as someone to watch.
Two months later, Charlie Spiller came within a few blades of grass of an individual regional title in his second year of varsity golf as a par putt on the second playoff hole slid by the target. Monday’s 71 was the low round of his high school career.
“He’s a talent — no question about it,” Woody said Monday. “He really knows his way around the golf course. He has all the shots and plays to his strengths.”
Spiller spoke matter-of-factly about the round as the leader in the clubhouse earlier in the afternoon.
“It was very rainy and very hard to hit every single shot,” Spiller said. “Last year, I shot an 80. To shoot a 71 this time is just great.”
Playoff for state trip
The final Region 9 entrant for the state tournament was determined by the continuation of a playoff for the seventh position outside the winning team on Tuesday morning.
Sayre’s Hayden Adams won the the final slot with a birdie on the second playoff hole, the par-3 17th.
Play was halted Monday due to darkness after an original five-way tie for the seventh slot was narrowed to three golfers on the first playoff hole: Frederick Douglass’s Carl Space and Henry Clay’s Thomas Hawse were the two eliminated Tuesday morning. They all shot a 4-over 76 during the round.
Those who clinched state tournament individual berths Monday were, Spiller (71), Alex Bennett of Great Crossing (73), Warren Thomis of Madison Central (74), Clifton Scully of Madison Southern (74), Alex Asbridge of Lexington Catholic (75) and Clay Pendergrass of Madison Central (75).
Those losing out after the first playoff hole were Clark County’s Jacob Settles and Model’s Nate Feese.
Barefooting it
Scott County’s Kyle VanValkenburg didn’t shoot the score he wanted (82), but he did provide something for his group to remember him by after an errant shot on 15.
“I fatted my tee shot, and I was left just on the bank of the water, and I took off my shoes to play out of it.”
Then he finished out the hole in his bare feet.
“I figured I was just so wet, I just played the rest of the hole in,” he said. “My feet were already soaking wet, so it didn’t matter.”
And the shot? “Not good. Let’s just put it that way. You don’t have to know anything else but that.”
Region 9 Championship results
Top five teams: x-Lexington Christian, 301; Madison Central, 305; Lexington Catholic, 321; Frederick Douglass, 323; Great Crossing, 327.
x-First place team advances to state tournament.
Top individuals: Cameron Bassel (Lexington Christian), 71 (won playoff); q-Charlie Spiller (Lexington Catholic), 71; q-Alex Bennett (Great Crossing), 73; McKean Collins (Lexington Christian), 73; q-Warren Thomis (Madison Central), 74; q-Clifton Scully (Madison Southern), 74; q-Alex Asbridge (Lexington Catholic), 75; q-Clay Pendergrass (Madison Central), 75; Carl Space (Frederick Douglass), 76; Jacob Settles (Clark Co.), 76; Thomas Hawse (Henry Clay), 76; Grey Goff (Lexington Christian), 76; Nate Feese (Model), 76; q-Hayden Adams (Sayre), 76 (won playoff).
q-Individual qualifier for state tournament.
This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 11:57 PM.
