Hobbs, Kelley continue to excel for Pirates golf

Every week Polson High School golfers Trey Kelley and Matt Hobbs continue to battle for supremacy for the Pirates’ No. 1 position in golf.

Week after week, it flip-flops between Kelley and Hobbs.

Hobbs outshined Kelley this week when he shot a sub-par score of 71 en route to a first-place finish at the Polson High School Invitational at the Polson Bay Golf Course.

Hobbs finished a close second firing a 75 on the course. And these two top-tier Pirates’ golfers have helped with the team aspect of the game.

Calvin Nowlan fired an 85, Jeff Devlin shot a 90 and Jackson Seifert shot a 101.

“I think we have a better case scenario (on the boys side) then we did last year,” Pirates’ coach Bill Owen said. “Last year we were a little iffy with our four and five just hanging around the 90s. This year our four and five golfers have potential to hit in the low 80s and potential to drop in the low 70s, I like the way (our team) is looking. The competition is stiffer this year with Stevi and Hamilton and there will be team competition between the three conferences.”

Owen has stated his No. 4 and 5 golfers continue to improve and that should provide them with a chance to win hardware.

“When we are playing with our best five by divisionals, I think we will have our players back and that could make a big difference,” Owen said. “It could make a big difference if we have five potential scorers for sure with those boys.”

Kelley finished second in the Libby Tournament firing a 75 and Hobbs was tied for fifth with a 77. Nowlan shot an 84 and Devlin finished the tournament with a 90 at Libby.

Libby, which is the site of the divisional tournament on Sept. 22, provided good practice for a Pirates’ crew that is gunning for a divisional team crown.

“Quite a few of my kids haven’t seen the Libby course but they had a chance to play this week,” Owen said. “We will go up and do a practice round next Friday. They’ll get another run before we actually do the divisional round and that will help a lot. We’ve had to have a good conference and I think (our conference) has improved from last year between us, Hamilton, and Stevi in the mix. They don’t necessarily want to count out Libby with the ace in the hole with Ryggs.”

In spite of the latest competition with the No. 2 golfer Trey Kelley challenging the No. 1 golfer Hobbs, Owen has stated that Hobbs still remains the Pirates No. 1 golfer.

“It is nice to have two golfers that can play (at the No.1 level),” Owen said. “Matt has probably shown himself the most and is our top player at this point. He’s been our go-to guy and to have Trey right behind him is nice.”

Cannon continues to shine for Lady Pirates

Polson High School Lady Pirates’ golfer Cali Cannon boasts of two top-five finishes Thursday at the Polson Invitational and Friday at the Libby Invitational.

Cannon finished fourth firing a 92 in Polson and fifth at Libby with a 96.

Amanda Farley finished ninth with a 99 and sixth in Libby with a 98.

The Lady Pirates as a team shot a cumulative total of 410 at Polson and 406 at Libby en route to a third-place finish in both contests. They only trailed Whitefish and Hamilton by a couple of strokes.

No. 3 golfer Esme Yarbrough shot a 103 in Polson and a 102 at Libby. Owen said he was “impressed” with the progress of sophomore golfer Ellie Thiel, who shot a 122 at Polson and a 110 at Libby.

“I think it should be interesting race at divisionals,” Owen said. “Whitefish is the front-runner throughout our season and with Corvallis, I think we finished ahead of them. I am not sure how many times that means we were in the hunt for a trophy for the girls on the divisional level.”

The last couple of seasons the Lady Pirates have had four golfers to score but this year they will have five, which provides the lineup with some protection.

“Having four golfers is huge because it gives you a chance for one of your kids to fall and someone else to pick up the slack,” Owen said. “Generally, we have had four golfers and couldn’t afford to stumble with any of our players. Now, if someone falls we have someone to pick up the slack and we will have a better edge in competition.”