The Buchholz boys golf team ended regular season play on a high note last Thursday, winning the 2024 Ann & John Ives Alachua County Championship held at Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville.

“It was a really great win for us,” said Ryan McNickle, who is in his fourth season as head coach of the Buchholz boys golf team. “We haven’t won county since 2017, and we were second the last three years so to get over the hump was really awesome.”

The Bobcats secured an overall score of 321, with Santa Fe coming in second with 325 and Oak Hall in third with 330.

“The guys all played really well,” McNickle said. “Ryder Robinson shot 77, Dharish Kalaisenthil shot 80, and Ashton Washington and Cecil Gracy both shot 82, so very consistent.”

Robinson, a junior, finished seven over, while Kalaisenthil, a sophomore, was 10 over.

Senior captain Jace Johnson struggled, shooting an 88, but he has led the team for most of the year with an average of 38.75 (nine holes).

“Jace has been on the team since his freshman year,” McNickle said of Johnson, who qualified for a pretty big state golf association event over the summer. “His freshman year he played a decent amount, and that team had a lot of really good players on it. Since his sophomore year, he’s played every single match for me, a great kid, and has improved every year. 

“He’s one that I like to bring up to a lot of the younger players every season because his freshman year he played some matches but he wasn’t an unbelievable golfer or anything like that, but he worked so, so hard at it. He loves golf and loves putting in the time and effort to get better at it and he reaps the rewards of that hard work.”

Coming into the match, the Bobcats aimed to beat out Santa Fe (Alachua) for the first time this season while also facing golf powerhouse Oak Hall, to who they lost the championship in 2023.

Buchholz was unable to compete against Oak Hall this season due to inclement weather and match cancellations.

“We’ve had a ton of weather issues throughout the year, not just with cancellations because of the hurricanes but with matches that just had to be postponed, rescheduled or canceled altogether because of weather,” said McNickle, whose team joined The Prep Zone sports show at Sonic Drive-In on Wednesday, Oct. 16. “Luckily, we’ve gotten most rescheduled.”

Buchholz, which lost at Columbia (Lake City), 184-179, on Wednesday, finished the regular season with a record of 12-4-2.

“Overall, the team is doing really well,” McNickle said. “I’ve been really proud of them. We’re probably a little better than last year, we’re certainly a little deeper than we’ve been the last couple of years.”

Buchholz plays six golfers during the season, but during the postseason, the number drops to five, with the top four scores counting.

“The last few years we’ve had really solid No. 1 and No. 2 guys but sometimes the 3 and 4 guys could be up and down,” McNickle said. “To get them all to play well every single time was difficult but this year we’ve kind of been better at that, more consistent. We have an older team for sure this year, at least in the top end, a senior and a bunch of juniors who play most matches and they’re very experienced.”

The Bobcats teed off Monday morning for the Class 3A-District 3 title at the Ocala Golf Club. The teams participating include host Forest (Ocala), DeLand, Flagler Palm Coast, Mainland (Daytona Beach), Matanzas (Palm Coast), Spruce Creek (Port Orange), University (Orange City) and West Port (Ocala).

“We’ve got a solid shot at advancing to regionals,” McNickle said. “We’d need to beat either Spruce Creek or Forest to get to regionals, and both are really good teams, but if we play to our potential and just focus on our own game and the shots, we’re trying to hit rather than worrying about stuff outside of our control we should have a great chance.”

Among other Alachua County schools, Santa Fe at GHS are competing at the 2A-District 3 match at Wakulla (Crawfordville) Sands Golf Course on Monday.

On Tuesday, Oak Hall, P.K. Yonge and Newberry will compete for the 1A-District 5 championship at the Mark Bostick Golf Course (Orange Tees).