Whitfield Junior Rutledge Leads Golf Team To Second Consecutive State Title

What would have been a strong result for many high school golfers at last year's state championship, was not acceptable to Mitch Rutledge. The sophomore's fifth place finish was simply a matter of coming up short, and this season his focus was square on a first place finish.

"The season went really well from an individual and a team standpoint, but I worked really hard after coming up short last year so I'd have a better chance to be the individual champion this year," said Rutledge.

The hard work and focus paid off as Rutledge was a 5 time medalist in dual matches, and won one regular season tournament (Bulldog Battle at WingHaven) and all three post season tournaments.  He was the District Champion by three shots, Sectional Champion by nine shots, and the Individual Class 2 State Champion by eight shots.

Rutledge won the state tournament shooting 74-71 and was the only player to post a round under par (Day 2, 71) in the field.  

"The team worked really hard to win back to back team titles. Our coaches gave us a huge advantage over the field by hauling us down to the districts, sectionals, and state courses on the weekends. All in all it was a great year and we had some great wins as a team," added Rutledge.

Coach Harold Barker noted the season was filled with many highs and lows due to a tough schedule following the 2010 championship. The Warriors finished the year with an 8-6 dual match record and finished third in the Lake Forest Invitational hosted by Fort Zumwalt West, third, again, in the Bulldog Battle at WingHaven hosted by Fort Zumwalt South, and then took first in the Festus Invitational. 

"The finish in the Festus Invitational gave us a lot of confidence since the field included many Class 2 and 3 schools, and once the post season came about, we found ourselves playing our best golf, winning the Class 2 District 2 tournament by 23 shots and the Class 2 Sectional 1 Tournament by 29 shots," explained Barker.

The first day of state however, demonstrated just how humbling the game of golf can be as Whitfield found themselves in second place shooting a 338 team score.  

"We played the last 6 holes of day one completely out of character, and had to regroup and learn from our mistakes," said Barker.

The next day the Warriors came out with poise, class and dignity, with every player improving their first day scores.

Nick Kunin improved 20 shots (107-87), Nate Schmidt improved 15 shots (93-78), Jake Andrews improved 7 shots (86-79), Alex Sarr improved 5 shots (85-80) and even Mitch Rutledge improved 3 shots (74-71).  Overall, Whitfield improved 30 shots as a team and shot a 308 for a team total of 646 winning by 28 shots.

Coming Up Later Today On Patch: A review of how other Creve Coeur area golfers fared at the state tournament.