Payne dissects Meadowbrook to win 5A crown, Comets roll to team title

By Ken MacLeod

Parker Payne of Noble won the battle of precocious freshman, navigating a 4-over 75 in cold, wet and windy conditions at Meadowbrook Country Club Tuesday to finish the Class 5A state championship at 2-under 211.

That left him as the only player in the field under par and five shots clear of fellow freshman Will Hennessee of Bishop Kelley, who also managed a 75 in the final round, which was postponed for nearly four hours by heavy rains.

Hennessee did lead the Comets to a convincing win in the team race, the school’s eighth state championship and the fourth under coach Shawn Lawhorn, with the most recent being in 2017.

Payne opened Monday with bogey-free rounds of 70-66, staggeringly good for the tight confines of Meadowbrook, especially with a stiff north wind. He had played the same course in the 5A preview in “78-80 something.”

“I just really had the driver going well both days, which you have to do here because it’s so tight, and so many trees everywhere,” Payne said. “You just have to put the ball in the fairway and if you do miss, you have to miss in the right spots.

“My mindset today was just to make all pars and see if that would get me through, and it did.”

Payne made his first bogey of the tournament on his first hole early Tuesday, made another and was actually glad for the rain delay to settle his nerves. He promptly birdied the par-5 13^th after the delay and played steady down the stretch.

Payne, who plays out of Jimmie Austin OU Golf Course in Norman and is a Sooner fan, knows Hennessee from junior golf and had watched him destroy the field in the 5A preview. He knew he would have to elevate his game to beat him and he did just that.

Hennessee, who opened with rounds of 69-72 to sit at 1-under, also showed composure in the final round but narrowly missed on several mid-range birdie putts and had a tee shot on the par-4 16^th hit a tree and bounce into a water hazard, effectively ending his chances.

The Comets won the team championship with a score of 928, 29 shots ahead of the Duncan Demons. Matt Barlow shot a final round 78, Max McGinty 83 and David Bryan 85 for the champions. It was the team’s seventh victory in nine events this season.

“Meadowbrook is a lot tighter than anything we play on a regular basis in 5A,” Lawhorn said. “I’ve got to give all the kids credit, we played really well in these conditions. We were pretty relaxed after getting that lead in yesterday’s second round (a tournament low round of 300). It was good to have some breathing room on Duncan, they’re a good team.”

Payne may be a freshman, but said his parents put a club in his hand at 14 months old. The state championship was his third victory of the season, and leaves the door open to become a rare four-time state champion.

“That’s the goal now,” he said. “It obviously will be hard, but at least there’s a chance.”

Gus Fritz of Shawnee placed third individually at 223 after rounds of 72-75-76.

Photos by Bill Powell

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