Scobey Spartans Capture Boys’ First State C Golf Championship

Five letters total.

Two simple words. One very telling text. “We won,” is all it stated. The electronic transmission occurred at 4:19 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time on Wednesday, May 15, when Daniels County Leader employee Vera Lynn Trangsrud received the “We won” transmission from her grandson, Brecken Maher, a sophomore on the Scobey High School boys’ golf team.

The Spartans did it, earning their first-ever Montana High School Association Class C Boys Golf state championship. By the thinnest margin possible, the local boys shot a 261-248— 509 to nip the Manhattan Christian Eagles, who fin ished at 266-244—510. The third-place trophy went to the Powder River County Hawks of Broadus (261267—528), coached by Chad Gatlin, a Scobey Cannonball golf alumni.

The Broadus bunch actually brought back two trophies from the Hamilton Golf Club’s 18-hole course as the Lady Hawks (277-292—569) outlasted the Fort Benton Longhorns (295-282—577) for the top team prize. The Manhattan Christian girls, who entered last week’s competition as the 6-time defending State C champion, finished in third (284-301—585).

After leaving Scobey for Great Falls on Sunday, May 12, where they spent the night, the local golfers and their coaches—head coach John States and assistant Greg Hardy—arrived in Hamilton for Monday’s practice round, completing the first half of the 1,192mile round trip.

Asked Monday, May 20, how the practice round went for the Scobey boys, States answered: “Not very good. The greens were fast and hard to read. They were cut pretty low making them faster.”

That changed 24 hours later as the Spartans carded a 261 team score in Tuesday's 18-hole first round, putting them in a tie for first place with Powder River County.

The boys began Tuesday's 18-hole first round on the No. 10 hole, with the girls starting on No. 1 and the weather being in the low 70s...