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Soon thereafter, the Lancaster Mennonite senior wanted to find out if he was the only one feeling that way.
And while the chaotic feedback he received did nothing to quell his inquiry, it did — ironically — provide him with the focus he needed.
"I was kind of asking around (about how other players were doing), but I had gotten all kinds of different numbers from all kinds of different people," Burkhart said. "So I just kind of tried to ignore (the leaderboard) and finish my round."
Good plan.
Using a patient focus to work it around the Lancaster Host Resort's soggy, 6,849-yard layout for a 1-over 72, Burkhart won the individual title at the Lancaster-Lebanon League Golf Championships by two shots Monday over Manheim Township's Austin Wolf.
It was the second L-L individual crown in the last three years for Burkhart, who also won the 2006 event at Groff's Farm as a sophomore.
Meanwhile, it was the second straight runner-up finish in this event for Wolf, whose 3-over 74 helped four-time defending Section One champion Township — which also counted scores from Devin O'Grady (77), Brian Rentz (77), Brandon Hartranft (81) and Alex Palmer (86) — capture the L-L team title for the third consecutive year.
But in the end, thanks to four days of rain that strengthened the rough and made a wet track that was already lengthened for the tournament play even longer, perhaps the biggest winner was the course.Of the 99 players in Monday's field, only 12 broke 80, including Warwick's Casey Osborne, Mennonite's David Denlinger and Lampeter-Strasburg's Josh Burg, all of whom finished tied for third after carding 5-over 76.
The 25 players who shot 83 or better Monday (along with Lancaster Catholic's Chris Halley, who won a seven-man playoff for 26th place) qualified for the District Three Tournament Oct. 10-11 at Briarwood Golf Club in York.
Township will compete in the District Three team tournament at Briarwood Oct. 8.
"It was long, it was wet and it was windy … it made it real tough," Burkhart said of the conditions. "I knew they were going to stretch out the course, too. And playing (the Host) at this length I was thinking, if you just play steady golf the whole way through you've got a good shot at it."
But after getting himself to 1-under at the par-5 second, where a greenside chip with his third shot hit the pin leading to a kick-in birdie, steady went out the window for Burkhart later on the front side.
Falling back to even par with a bogey at the par-4 seventh, where he missed the green with an 8-iron and failed to get up and down, Burkhart dropped another shot at the par-3 eighth, where he failed to get up and down from the right greenside bunker.
More bad news came at the par-4 ninth, where Burkhart was forced to take an unplayable lie after hitting his tee shot into some bushes and eventually made a double bogey that took him to 3-over.
Time to regroup.
(1593) (878) (800) (666) (622) (537) (434) (388) (291) (56) (20) (20) (19) (18) (12) (10) (7) (6) (6) (3) (3) (3)"I started to make a few bogeys coming home on the front nine and I just thought I've got to kind of battle back because there are a lot of bogeys to be had out here," Burkhart recalled. "And I think I was playing more for par on the back nine, knowing that I don't have to go really low to win here because of how tough the conditions were."
And so it went.
After righting the ship a bit with a birdie at the par-4 10th (9-iron to seven feet), Burkhart strung together seven straight pars to keep his round intact.
He added one more birdie at the par-5 18th, where he hit his second shot with a 3-iron to 15 feet and two-putted to get back to 1-over.
"I just hit greens," said Burkhart, the reigning Lancaster County Junior Golf Tour champion, who also finished seventh at the Pennsylvania Junior Championship over the summer. "I wouldn't say I had a great ball striking day, but I was able to get it on the green and two putt.
"It wasn't necessarily (exceptional) putting or anything else," he added. "I think it was the fact that I was able to hit greens and make pars, because that's kind of how you had to do it today."
Notes: Manheim Township (Section One), Lampeter-Strasburg (Section Two) and Lancaster Mennonite (Section Three) were awarded their section team championship trophies Monday. … Also distributed were the individual section scoring titles, which went to Penn Manor's Frank Dano (Section One), Burg (Section Two) and Burkhart (Section Three). … The L-L Girls' Championships will be held today at the Lancaster Host, beginning at 9 a.m.
E-mail: jfulginiti@lnpnews.com
