CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — The host Webb City Cardinals earned second place in the team standings by virtue of winning a tiebreaker against conference and district rival Carl Junction and Joplin junior Harry Satterlee won top individual honors with his 2-under par 70 on Monday in the Bird Dog Invitational at the Briarbrook Golf Course.
Nixa claimed the top prize at 304, four strokes ahead of Webb City and Carl Junction eight days before these schools and several others will battle for the Central Ozark Conference championship at the same course with Carl Junction assuming host duties.
Nixa’s Jack Holden finished second at even-par 72 and Webb City’s Braxten Cahoon, Carl Junction’s Jack Spencer and Monett’s Jaxon Bailey each shot 2-over 74 to round out the top five individual finishers Monday.
“I am very, very happy with the outing today,” Webb City coach Jackson Boyer said. “Three guys in the 70s. That happened (April 17) at Carthage and we needed help from our four and our five. Actually, our five-hole came through (Monday) with a 77 and he’s done that in practice. He’s still fairly new to golf … Jackson Lucas made a statement. We’re still trying to find our top five for conference and district.”
“We played pretty good,” Carl Junction coach Ryan Jones said. “Any time you’re playing golf, you’re more worried about what you shoot as opposed to everybody else. I feel like our scores weren’t too bad today. Nixa is a really good golf team and you’re just going to have to catch them on the right day to be able to beat them. Today, they played good enough.”
Webb City’s Cooper Forth shot 76 to finish in the top 10, Lucas stepped up and finished in the top 10 as well behind his 77 on Monday, and Levi Lassiter and Jack Good shot 81 and 91, respectively, for the Cardinals on a day when truly every shot counted.
“Braxten Cahoon, our senior, he came out on his home course, and he had a pretty disappointing last few years at this tournament for his standards and he showed up today and helped the team,” Boyer said. “Of course, there’s Cooper Forth and Levi Lassiter. It came down to a tie with Carl Junction for second, so we took our number five score against their number five score. All five contributed today and it’s a big accomplishment.
“We had cool temperatures early. Greens are running smooth. This is the time of the year where there’s enough warm weather to let the grass catch up a little bit. I thought the wind was going to pick up (Monday), but it just never did. It was absolute perfect conditions for golf today, so guys came out and answered the call.”
Carl Junction’s Tommy Walker joined Spencer in the top 10 with his score of 77, Logan Lowry and Jacob Teeter shot 78 and 79 to finish right on the periphery of the top 10, and Zach Merwin and Jayden Wingo shot 94 and 95 to round out the Bulldogs’ scores Monday.
“We’re right there,” Jones said. “Again, it’s another runner-up. We won the (St. Mary’s) Colgan Invitational last week, but for the most part, we’ve settled in. We’re consistent in our numbers. We are who we are. We’re close enough to beat anybody, but we just need to have one of those days where putts drop, and we don’t make just one mistake here or there. We’re in the mix of being a really, really good golf team. We just need one day where we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Satterlee, who shot 1-under par 70 and beat Republic’s Cason Bekemeier in a playoff to win the previous week’s Abbiati’s BBQ Invitational at Carthage and a 4-under 68 to win the Joplin Invitational earlier this season, again showed why he’s one of the best golfers around.
“Obviously, it’s all-around the same score nowadays, definitely pretty consistent,” Satterlee said. “It was obviously 2-under, anybody will take it … it’s just one tournament.
“It (Briarbrook) was playing pretty easy, to be honest. Par-5s are gettable. I played the par-5s even, which was disappointing, but I made up for it on par-4s.”
Satterlee did not require a playoff Monday, though, as he was the only golfer among the nearly 90 golfers to shoot under par.
“They’re fun, though,” Satterlee said. “But I was excited to win it by a couple strokes. I have to stay focused … the job’s not finished.”
Satterlee won the Bird Dog his sophomore year with a 2-under 70.
His sights are not only the more immediate future of the upcoming conference and district tournaments, but Satterlee also recently committed to play golf at the college level for NCAA Division I school Cincinnati, a member of the American Athletic Conference alongside schools like Houston, Memphis, Temple, and Wichita State.
“I took a visit in mid-February,” Satterlee said. “I got to see the facilities and they laid out the red carpet for me. I’m excited for the future. There’s a couple more schools talking with me, but at the end of the day, I decided that I wanted to pursue my academic and athletic career at Cincinnati.”
Team champion Nixa and individual champion Satterlee will look to defend their respective titles at next Tuesday’s conference tournament.
“Nixa is one of the best teams in Southwest Missouri and we get them again next week on the same course in our conference tournament,” Boyer said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge again.
“At this point, the kids know what they’re capable of physically, it’s the mental preparation. Anybody that’s ever played golf knows that it’s between the ears and having a plan and being able to bounce back from a bad shot. I tell the kids the secret to golf is to not hit two bad shots in a row. No one’s going to go out and play perfect, but if you can limit those (bad) shots and be mentally tough, especially around the green when you’re chipping and putting, that’s going to be our emphasis at practice until we enter the playoffs.”
Nixa won by 10 strokes last season with a 307 at Branson’s Pointe Royale Golf Course, while Ozark finished second at 317, Joplin third at 318, Webb City fourth at 327, Carl Junction fifth at 332, Carthage sixth at 336, Republic seventh at 343, Willard eighth at 356, Branson ninth at 363, and Neosho 10th at 370.
Nine of those 10 schools competed Monday at Briarbrook.
“That’s a good thing that we’re back here,” Jones said. “I would expect the course will play a little longer, a little different next week. We’ll play a different set of tees and it will have a little more teeth to the course. Our kids are used to that, and we’ll see if we’re good enough. This is as good as the Central Ozark Conference has been, as far as I can remember, in almost the 20 years I’ve been doing this. It’s a talented field next week, but I like our team and I like our chances if we go out and do what we’re capable of … we can make some noise next week.”
2023 Bird Dog Invitational
(at Briarbrook Golf Course)
Team scores: Nixa 304, Webb City 308, Carl Junction 308, Carthage 321, Ozark 330, Joplin 335, Branson 336, Monett 336, Frontenac 344, Republic 346, Seneca 361, Neosho 362, Mount Vernon 381, McAuley Catholic 384, Thomas Jefferson 393, Nevada 395, Diamond 423, Lamar 450.
Team Results
NIXA (304): Jack Holden 72, Chance Willhite 75, Noah Naugle 78, Peyton Burbridge 79, Meyer Lively 80.
WEBB CITY (308): Braxten Cahoon 74, Cooper Forth 76, Jackson Lucas 77, Levi Lassiter 81, Jack Good 91, Carson Judd 84, Braden McKee 87.
CARL JUNCTION (308): Jack Spencer 74, Tommy Walker 77, Logan Lowry 78, Jacob Teeter 79, Zach Merwin 94, Jayden Wingo 95.
CARTHAGE (321): Max Templeman 79, Owen Derryberry 79, Colson Brust 80, Britt Coy 83, Ben Nicholas 89.
OZARK (330): Kyle Fitzpatrick 78, Boston Huddleston 80, C.J. Jackson 81, Christian Colvin 91, Carter Cronister 101.
JOPLIN (335): Harry Satterlee 70, Hobbs Campbell 85, Dylan Bozarth 87, Ian Surbrugg 93, Cash Tyson 100.
BRANSON (336): Andrew Bristow 79, Ben Presley 81, Reese Ruprecht 86, Kaden Alms 90, Evan Johnson 92.
MONETT (336): Jaxon Bailey 74, Jake Hoyt 81, David Southard 90, Cal Butterworth 91, Clay Butterworth 99.
FRONTENAC (344): Aidan Hill 79, Cole Niederklein 80, Vinny Pile 89, Trey Cramer 96, Cooper Born 108.
REPUBLIC (346): Cason Bekemeier 77, Brayden Tharp 87, Jace Henry 88, Bryce Ondrick 94, Luke Heavin 101.
SENECA (361): Jeremy Haase 85, Eli Olson 89, Jace Wilson 93, Evan Davidson 94, Gabe Garcia 111.
NEOSHO (362): Colby Shadwick 84, Collier Hendricks 91, Conner Reiboldt 92, Camp Ramsey 95, River Feagans 98.
MOUNT VERNON (381): Owen Smith 91, Carter Meirick 93, Justin Orr 98, Jaiden Edwards 99, Clayton Turner 118.
MCAULEY CATHOLIC (384): Evan D’Amour 91, Rocco Bazzano-Joseph 94, Trey Martinez 98, Bradley Wagner 101, Liam Buerge 109.
THOMAS JEFFERSON (393): Jack Tyrell 85, Beck McKinney 94, Tony Touma 100, Benjamin Carroll 114, Ethan Ranger 116.
NEVADA (395): Preston Drake 95, Peyton Wyant 98, Talan Chandler 101, Hunter Gruenhagen 101, Wyatt Jenkins 110.
DIAMOND (423): Peyton Marbough 99, Jarron Hembree 101, Nathan Gray 103, Nik Paulk 120.
LAMAR (450): Koen Littlejohn 106, Cade Moore 107, Stratton Brazier 112, Trey Shaw 125.
AURORA: Ross Baker 91, Luke Stellwagen 92.
MCDONALD COUNTY: Jordan Saylor 105, Kole Lewis 106, Huston Porter 127.
On Saturday, trailing Nixa entering the final event of the 4×400, Neosho’s relay of freshman William Ebbinghaus, sophomore Isaiah Keezer, senior Isaiah Green and junior Izaiah Hill rallied past the field down the back stretch with a winning time of 3 minutes and 26 seconds and secured the program’s first district track title since 1979.
Neosho was in second place in the team standings behind Webb City ahead of the 4×400-meter relay, the night’s final event. 
