Outside of Port Neches-Groves junior Bryce Parsley, day one of the 5A Region III golf championships at La Torretta Resort and Spa on Lake Conroe was mostly forgettable.

Parsley, after making a quintuple bogey nine on his first hole, played the rest of the way in 1-over to finish with a remarkable 77. That earned him a tie for 10th and gives him a realistic chance of advancing to the state tournament.

To put Parsley’s 77 in perspective, consider that no other player from PNG or Nederland could do better than 83.

District 22-5A champ Brendan Marley of Nederland, who was considered to have an excellent chance to qualify for state, got buried with double and triple bogeys and shot 87.

PNG got the best of the Mid-County rivalry on day one with a team total of 339. That left the Indians in seventh place, 43 shots behind front runner Montgomery and 27 strokes back of third place Cedar Park. The top three teams advance to state.

Nederland, with a low score of 84 from Jadon Bell, was in 10th at 346. Other Bulldog scores included an 85 by Daniel Cormier and a 90 by Tyler Wallie.

Last year’s District 22-5A champ and state qualifier Timothy Feemster backed up Parsley’s 77 for PNG with an 83. Other scores that counted for the Indians were an 87 by Paul Muse and a 92 by Dalton Shields.

Jason Adams, who made it to regional as in individual from PNG’s second team, shot 84.

“Bryce Parsley was the story of the day for us,” said PNG coach Jerry Honza. “The way he bounced back from that first hole was impressive. He’s got a shot to qualify for state, but he will have to play all 18 holes Thursday like he did the last 17 today.”

Montgomery’s Terrin Anderson’s fired the day’s low round with a 2-under 69. Vishnu Sadagopan of Shadow Creek and Hunter Bott of Montgomery tied for second with 71s.

Nederland coach Rob Long, who expected to be accompanying Marley to state in three weeks, said he felt bad for what his best player suffered through.

“I think he put too much pressure on himself,” said Long. “Anybody who has ever played golf competitively has gone through something like that. He got a bad break early when he lost a ball only a few yards off the green on a par three. That led to a triple bogey and things just kind of snowballed from there.”

The final round of regional is set for Thursday morning.

One area player who didn’t struggle Wednesday was LCM sophomore Jack Burke.

The top junior player in Southeast Texas, Burke carded a one-over-par 72 at Ravens Nest in Huntsville to take a three-stroke lead in the 4A Region III tournament.

LCM, riding Burke’s coattails, was in fourth place with a 344.
Huffman led at 327, followed by Gatesville at 334 and Robinson at 340. LCM needs to get up to third to qualify for state.