Buffalo Linksters Finish 8th at State Golf and Beat Rival Dodge City

Garden City-(westernkansasnews.com)  It was the first time in 14 years that the 6A State Golf Tournament had been held in Garden City and this time it was at Buffalo Dunes.  The last time it was at the Golf Club at Southwind in 1998, when the Buffaloes produced a State Champion with Cole Wassinger, who is now the Club Pro at the Dunes, as he and large group of school and community volunteers helped run this huge event with 18 teams and 96 linksters vieing for a State Championship.  The Kansas City schools continued their domination, as Blue Valley North took the top honors with an incredible score of 300, with their top four players all in the top five medal positions.  Blue Valley West was runner-up with a total of 315 and Shawnee Mission East the two time defending champion finished 3rd with 316.  The Garden City Buffalo linksters had finished behind Western Athletic Conference rival Dodge City all season long in a variety of tournaments.  Not this time on the biggest stage of the year, as the Buffaloes finished 8th with a score of 336 after a winning a 6th man tie-breaker again as they had in the Maize Regional that propelled them to State.  Hutchinson placed 9th and the WAC Champion Dodge City team finished 11th three strokes back.  Garden City was led by sophomore Austin Swender placing 16th with an 80, senior Scott Buckley 85, Bryer Livermore 85, Braden Taylor fired and 86, Boone Wells had an 88, but it was senior Nick Mann with an 89 that gave the Buffs sole possession of 8th, as he shot one stroke better than Hutchinson’s number 6 player.  Coach Lloyd Tiffany was extremely pleased with the way his team performed throughout the day, as the warm, windy weather affected everyone’s game, but he loved the focus and determination of the his entire team and especially to his seniors.