Region 4 Golf Fotu is medalist with late birdie

AMERICAN FORK — The Region 4 golf war looks like it's going to be a battle of the young guns.

At the league's first match Thursday at Tri City Golf Course, the top three finishers and four of the top six are freshmen. Lone Peak's Garrett Fotu fired the day's low round by posting a 2-under par 70. Spanish Fork's Garrett Moss, another ninth-grader, came in a shot behind at 1-under 71. Joe Parkinson, also a Knights' freshman, finished alone in third with a 2-over par 74.

Pleasant Grove's Mike Anderson fired a 76, and his teammate, Skylar Schone, another freshman, tied Jeff Holmes of Timpanogos for fifth — both shooting 77.

Behind the stellar scoring of the two youngsters, Lone Peak won the region's opening match by 11 shots over Pleasant Grove. The Spanish Fork Dons, winners of 11 straight region titles, came in third — 13 shots behind the Vikings. American Fork finished in fourth, Timpanogos fifth and Mountain View sixth.

Fotu, Moss, Parkinson and Schone are no strangers to each other. They've been competing all summer long on the junior golf circuit, and they went head to head Thursday on Tri City's tough and lengthy layout.

"They've been battling each other all summer, and I expect it might be this way all season," Lone Peak coach Troy Nordick said.

Fotu and Moss stayed within a shot of each other all day until Fotu's approached shot on the par-4 16th. His wedge shot hit the pin and nearly dropped in the cup, leaving him only a few inches for a tap-in birdie. That turned out to be the difference in the medalist race. Nordick called Fotu a long-hitter and a great ball-striker.

"He doesn't miss-hit many shots," he said.

Moss said the talented group of freshmen tends to feed off each other on the course, pushing each to play better and improve. They'd better get used to it with each having four years of promising high school golf ahead.

"I'm looking forward to it," Moss said. "It's going to be fun."

Depth was the deciding factor in the team scores. The Knights, with a 78 each from Spencer Snyder and Ryan Wong, had four players shoot below 80. Stacie Parkinson rounded out Lone Peak's scoring with an 81. Pleasant Grove also had balanced scoring with four players shooting in the '70s and James Crowley adding an 83.

"We've said all along that that's what we needed, four players in the 70s and another in the low 80s," Vikings coach John Kurtz said.