PINE GROVE – The Ironton Fighting Tigers were thisclose to winning their own tournament.

Wednesday, August 23, 2000

PINE GROVE – The Ironton Fighting Tigers were thisclose to winning their own tournament.

The Fighting Tigers came within just two strokes of matching the Gallipolis Blue Devils in Friday’s Ironton Invitational golf tournament.

Gallipolis’ A-team had a 310 team score led by medalist Brian Bickle with a 71. Ironton had a 312 while Logan shot a 314 to place third.

The Fairland Dragons were fourth at 328 followed by Portsmouth West at 336, Wheelersburg had a 351, Portsmouth Clay 355, Gallipolis B-team 358, South Point 359, Athens 377, Rock Hill 398, and Portsmouth 418.

"We played pretty well. We played much better than the previous match. We played more like we’re capable," Ironton coach Bill Washburn said.

Ironton was led by Adam Rudmann with a 74, tied for third best with Wheelersburg’s Paul Miller. Rudmann had a 36 on the front nine and a 38 on the back side.

The Fighting Tigers Bo McGinnis shot a 76 to finish fifth overall and Andy Brown shot a 78 to tie for ninth with Tim Mathews of Gallipolis. McGinnis had rounds of 36 and 40 while Brown went 38-40 for his total.

Rounding out Ironton’s top five golfers were Zack Christian with an 84 and T. J. Parnell carded an 85. Christian shot 43-41 and Parnell had a 40-45.

Fairland was led by Matt Hansford who shot 38-39 for a 77 score and finished tied for sixth individually with Gallipolis’ David Finney and Logan’s Ben Cole.

Tyler Stapleton topped South Point with an 84 on two rounds of 42. Joe Crabtree also had an 84 to pace Rock Hill including a front nine score of 38.

Ironton ran its record to 30-8 Monday by winning a quad match at Shawnee Golf Course in Portsmouth.

Ironton blistered the course with a 150 score, 10 strokes ahead of Portsmouth West. Portsmouth Clay shot a 167 and Northwest finished with a 197.

The Fighting Tigers were led by Rudmann who earned medalist honors with a 35. Christian shot a 37 and Josh Cartmell had a 38. Brown and McGinnis had identical scores of 40 while Parnell had a 43.