Westmoreland County high school notebook: Ligonier Valley’s McIntosh pockets hole in one

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, September 3, 2023 | 7:47 PM

Ligonier Valley golfer Brody McIntosh had quite a surprise waiting for him at the sixth hole during last Monday’s match at Norvelt Golf Club.

A hole-in-one.

Fuming red after making a triple-bogey 7 on No. 5, the senior stomped to the sixth tee, dropped his ball on the teebox without using a tee and took a swing.

McIntosh sent his tee shot high and true, over the pond and onto the green, then watched it roll.

“Pin was in the back-left corner of the green,” he said. “I just grabbed my pitching wedge and threw the ball down. I didn’t even tee it up. I just walked up and nonchalantly smacked it. I was really disgusted and, at this point, just trying to put one on the green.

“But then I started to pull myself together and reminded myself that it’s a new hole and there’s still a lot of golf to play. I absolutely pured it. I watched the ball start off the right side of the green and draw back in heading right towards the stick.”

The yardage was 138 yards. The mood was anger. The result was his first career ace.

“I was not expecting it to happen, especially in a match,” he said.

He didn’t see it go in on the par-3, but he was enthused when he realized it did.

“I just figured it rolled off the back into the fringe,” he said. “I walked up to the hole and didn’t see a ball on the green, walked over towards the pin and there it was sitting in the cup. I thought to myself, ‘Man, that’s wild.’ ”

Ligonier Valley defeated host Mt. Pleasant, 204-220. The Vikings’ Ryan Karfelt had the low round of the match with a 38.

McIntosh finished with a 3-over-par 39 to tie teammate Declan McMullen for team medalist honors. He went into grind mode to stay under 40 in the nine-hole match.

“Nobody wants to finish a round and shoot in the 40s with a hole-in-one,” he said. “I got my head back in the game because there were still three holes left, so I just pretended (No. 5) didn’t happen and I tried not to blow up on the last holes.

“I could not have (been part of a win) without the rest of the guys, so shout out to them. The cool thing is, our top five guys are all right in the same range, so it could have been any one of us.”

County golf

Franklin Regional will try to make it three straight championships Thursday at the seventh annual Westmoreland County Coaches Association girls golf tournament at Champion Lakes Golf Course and Resort in Bolivar.

Last year, the Panthers posted a score of 182, placing four girls in the top 10 individually, to top Greensburg Central Catholic by 16 shots.

Two-time champion GCC has finished second in the nine-hole tournament for two straight years.

GCC, Penn-Trafford and Mt. Pleasant could be strong pursuers.

“The girls know they have a target on their back and that competition around them has greatly improved,” Franklin Regional coach Kane Daignault said. “We talk about not getting ahead of ourselves and that the most important shot is the next shot. That’s the mentality they need to have whether they are standing on the first tee or standing on the green on the last hole staring down a 5-footer for par.”

The Panthers have won 37 straight section matches and are chasing a fourth straight section title.

Individually, Izzy Aigner of GCC is the defending champion after shooting a tournament-record 1-under 36 on the back nine to win by six strokes.

Runner-up Milana Yannascoli of Hempfield also returns (42), as does Gianna Johnson of Franklin Regional, who finished third (43).

Aigner became the fourth GCC player to win the girls county title, joining Olivia Zambruno (2016), Meghan Zambruno (2018) and Angelika Dewicki (2019).

Offer for Murray

Hempfield senior track and field thrower Peyton Murray picked up his first Division I scholarship offer, from Indiana.

Murray won a gold medal in the discus at the PIAA Class 3A championships last season and took second in the shot put. He is a two-time WPIAL Class 3A discus champion.

Derry Hall of Fame

Derry announced its 2023 Hall of Fame class.

The Trojans’ Hall is not just for athletics. It also recognizes those who have contributed in the classroom.

The group will be enshrined at 5 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Derry Area Middle School auditorium.

Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

Inductees are: Joseph Murin (Class of 1967) for lifetime achievement; SFC Earl R. Fillmore Jr. (1983) for humanitarianism; Dr. W. Larry Kenney (1974) and Matthew Irvin (1997) for academics; Richard Matrunick (1970) and Albert Taylor as athletes; Dino DeCario (1980) and Troy Dolan (1983) for business and entrepreneurship; Delfino Calvo and Andrew Ridilla (1974) for fine arts; the 1986 boys volleyball team; and Richard Schall and Richard Ludwig as coaches.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Hempfield, Ligonier Valley, Penn-Trafford