Effingham Boys Golf Squad Fails to Advance to State

The Effingham High School boys golf team missed advancing to the 2A State Tournament by 10 strokes Saturday.

Effingham finished eighth with a 330 team total.

Hearts Coach Jeff Schafer said, "Today was pretty disappointing; when we step back and look at this, it will sting.  This was the third straight sectional appearance for our team.  We played great golf all year long and were good enough to advance; we just didn't play our best today; just playing good would have been good enough to advance.  The 12 teams that played were separated by a very small margin; last year in the sectional we played great and missed by three shots.  I feel for our kids because of how dedicated they are.  We have everyone coming back next year, where the teams that advanced are losing half of their teams.  We have one of the best players in the state in Jackson Wendling, Jake Linders played great this year and showed maturity as the season went on, Callaway Smith was awesome his freshman year; he made us a contender right away.  Sean Sandifer came up big in some huge spots for us, and Reed Schafer made huge strides this season.  Our sixth man Brandon Dahnke had 39 for his first nine holes at the sectional and has that to build on.  We had a great season and should be very hard to beat next year."

Here are the scores from Saturday's sectional: Jackson Wendling--80, Jake Linders--81, Callaway Smith--82, Brandon Dahnke--87, Reed Schafer--88, Sean Sandifer--90.