by Lisa Hinton-Valdrighi
Rappahannock edged Northumberland by four strokes to win the Region 1A East golf tournament at Hobbs Hole Golf Course in Tappahannock Monday and Lancaster’s Sheridan Ford won a one-hole playoff as the only Red Devil to earn a trip to next week’s state tournament in Harrisonburg.
Rappahannock, who finished as the runner-up in the Northern Neck District tournament to Lancaster last week, will take its entire team to the Group 1A tournament at Heritage Oaks Golf Course on Monday and Tuesday, October 9-10.
The Raiders found themselves down by 15 strokes after the first three groups of golfers had reported scores then got an 85 each from Josh White and Sydney Deshazo to pull out the championship win. Rappahannock finished with a team score of 332 to Northumberland’s 336. Lancaster was third with 347, Essex fourth with 351, Windsor fifth with 374, Mathews sixth with 377 and Middlesex seventh with 400.
Windsor’s Zack Walsh shot a 4-over par 75 as the region’s individual medalist and the Region 1A East’s player of the year.
Had Northumberland, which finished third in the district tournament, pulled off the upset, Lancaster would have qualified two—Jacob Hudnall and Sheridan Ford—for the upcoming state tournament. The regional championship team plus the top five golfers not on that team advance. The upset brought up a tie between Ford and Palubinski and knocked Hudnall out of a state spot.
Sheridan and Palubinski met on par-5, hole number one for a playoff with about 20 carts and 40 pairs of eyes on the two players. Sheridan put his first shot in the middle of the fairway and his second on the green then birdied the hole for the win. Palubinski parred the hole.
Sheridan, who had shot an 82 for Lancaster’s low tourney score, is a senior and will make his first trip to the state tournament.
