High school golf: Dixie wins 4A yet again

SYRACUSE — It was understandable that the Dixie Flyers didn't leap in joy or celebrate excessively Thursday after winning the 4A Utah High School Golf Championship at Glen Eagle golf course.

After all, loading up state trophies for the long ride down south is old and common business for the Flyers. Thursday's championship was the school's third straight 4A golf title and fifth straight overall, having won the 2005 and '06 titles as a 3A school. In the past eight years, Dixie has won seven state golf titles.

"Some of these guys were here last year, but we do have a couple of new guys so it's always great to win no matter how many you've won before," Dixie coach Eron Deming said. "And last year when we arrived back in St. George we got a nice greeting, so I'm sure we'll get another one this time as well."

Leading the way for Dixie was junior medalist McCoy Willey, who won his second-straight medalist title after firing a closing-round 5-under par 67 — for a two-day total of 5-under par and a seven-stroke win. The Flyers also received great play from Connor Van Gilder (third place), Yoshi Suzuki and Haidan Heppler (tied for eighth place), Michael Glauser (13th) and A. J. Thomas (19th place).

"On this team you can't just show up and expect to play," Willey said. "You have to play your best or someone else is going to get your spot. But we have a lot of fun on this team. We push each other and get the best out of each other, and it shows."

Finishing a distant second in the team battle, 34 shots back, was Bonneville. The Lakers had three players — Brock Glassman, Greg Diaz and Tanner Alder — who posted a 74 on Thursday.

East took third, 38 shots behind Dixie, Orem fourth, Tooele fifth, Uintah sixth, and Timpanogos and Snow Canyon tied for seventh.

Finishing second in the medalist race was Region 7 champion Dalton Stanger of Orem. The Tiger junior had Thursday's second-best round of 2-under 70 to finish at 146, seven strokes behind Willey. Van Gilder and Stratton Schulz of Uintah, at 147, tied for third. Nate Burr of Snow Canyon and Skylar Schone of Pine View finished at 148 and tied for fifth.

Willey, who has already verbally committed to play college golf at BYU, began Thursday's final round trailing by two shots after what he called a "bad short-game" round on Wednesday. His strategy Thursday was to play boring conservative golf, figuring one birdie by him and a bogey by the two players that he trailed would even things up in a hurry.

That strategy, however, changed quickly.

"I knocked it to about a foot on No. 2 for a birdie and then hit it on in two on the par-5 third and was 2-under after three holes," Willey said.

From there his momentum snowballed. He shot a 5-under 31 on the front side and got as low as 7-under through 11 holes before making a couple of bogeys as he coasted home.

"Everyone's going to make some bogeys, that's golf. But I hit a lot of good shots and made a lot of good putts today," he said.

Willey is already looking ahead to going for a three-peat next year.

"I'm always working hard on my game and looking forward to the next tournament," he said.

e-mail: jimr@desnews.com