David Green leads Outlaws to state title

State Champion David Green. Photo by Rongi Yost

The Outlaws lived up to all expectations, claiming the Boys State Championship golf title last week.

The two-day state tournament was held at The Ridge Golf Course at Eagle Crest on May 19 and 20.

David Green took top honors as individual medalist and led the Outlaws to their first place finish. David shot a 71 (one under par) in the first round and an impressive 69 (three under par) for the second round.

"Winning was a huge thing for me," said David. "I wanted to get the individual school record for this year and to do that I had to shoot a 69 on one of the rounds. It was cool when I found out I had the lowest combined score in the state, including 4A."

"In all the tournaments we've played at Eagle Crest there's no question in my mind that David played the finest two-day round by any high school student ever," said Coach Jeff Barton.

David is one of a band of brothers -- literally -- who form the core of a dominating group of golfers.

Christian Green shot a 74-73 (147) for the Outlaws. Scott Barton carded 81-74 (155), Jonathan Green 81-82 (163) and Jeremy Deboard 88-91 (179).

As a team the Outlaws shot a 307 on the first round and a 298 on the second, a total of 605 which was 33 strokes ahead of second place La Grande.

Siuslaw High School out of Florence took third (659) and Estacada was fourth at 688.

"In the second round we just absolutely smoked the field," Coach Barton said. "All the teams played better the second round but nobody could come close to us.

"We just dominated!" he said.

Christian Green assessed the team's performance over the year.

"I thought we did just great this year," said Green.

"Our team average was below 300 this year, which was a first for Sisters. It was very exciting when we carded a 291 at Mallard Creek earlier in the season and broke the old school record by three strokes. That was one of our goals."

Along with breaking the old school record the team accomplished the other two goals they'd set for themselves at the start of the season: winning the Central Oregon Classic back-to-back and winning state.

David Green said, "It feels awesome knowing we achieved all three of our goals. We had an incredible year! It will be hard for any Sisters golf team in the future to top what we did this year."

Coach Barton had a lot of admiration for this special group of boys.

"These kids are very mature and have played at a consistently high level over the past few weeks," he said.

"They're a great group of kids that cheer for each other and take their golf very seriously."