RHS golf still on top

By Randy Seal

For the FCT

Last Tuesday, the RHS boy’s golf team played Arab at Cherokee Ridge where the Tigers shot 327 to Arab’s 355.

RHS was led by Eli Hodges with a score of 76, Luke Bendall with an 81 and Aaron Jackson and Blake Bendall, who both shot an 85 to round out the top four scores.

“I feel like we left several shots on the course and we could have easily shot closer to 315,” coach Jason Haithcock said.

“Eli shot two under on the front nine and struggled some on the back nine.

“The wind was gusting at 30 mph at times and it even snowed on us for a little while, but we will play Monday in the Cherokee Ridge Invitational and with better weather conditions, so I hope to see our total score drop at least 10 strokes.”

On Wednesday the golf team travelled to Birmingham to play Homewood and John Carroll Catholic at Oxmoor Valley’s Valley Course.

Temperatures where barely above freezing at the start time and the wind was still blowing.

The Tigers managed to pull out another win by shooting 333, followed by John Carroll with 338 and Homewood with 369.

RHS was led by Aaron Jackson’s 76, which was good enough for medalist honors. Other scores for Russellville were: Eli Hodges 82, Luke Bendall 84, and Joshua Seal 91.

“I was really proud of Aaron’s 76 because he started off with three straight bogeys and held on to shoot a great round,” Haithcock said.

“Each one of our top five guys shot a score of 85 or less in at least one of our matches on Spring Break, which makes me feel good about the potential of our team.

“Now we need to get four scores at 82 or lower for us to be able to advance to sub state and then to state.

“I was really proud of Luke’s play on Tuesday and Wednesday because he had a rough round on Monday. I have no doubt that these boys will continue working over the next month to get us where we need to be.”