Swearingen five strokes off the lead after first round at Class 3 state golf

Nevada High School head golf coach Brian Leonard is in charge of running this year’s MSHSAA Class 3 boys golf tournament, so he had to man the clubhouse during first-round action Monday at the Crown Pointe Golf Club in Farmington.

Fortunately, it did not take long for him to hear an update on how NHS junior Owen Swearingen was performing out on the links.

“I kept hearing people following the live scoring saying, ‘Hey, some kid’s already two-under after three holes,’” said Leonard, who was happy to hear they were talking about Swearingen, who ended up birdieing three of his first five holes, before ending his round with a 4-over par 76, good enough for second place. “I knew he would be up there in the top somewhere. As a coach, nothing beats hearing everybody talking about the scores, going, ‘You see that kid?’ and being able to say, ‘Yep, that’s one of my golfers.’”

After the hot start, Swearingen bogeyed the last three holes on his front nine for an even 36, then bogeyed four more on the back nine for a score of 40.

Father Tolton’s Christian Rischer, meanwhile, sank four birdies and three bogeys to take a one-under par (71) lead.

Trailing Rischer by five strokes, Swearingen will join Logan-Rogersville’s Kanon Gipson (77) and St. Pius X’s James Dintino II (78) as the last group to tee off at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. If play is rained out, though, the first-round scores will become official finals scores.

“It’s going to be fun tomorrow. I hope they can get it in,” Leonard said. “If not, he’s in second place. If so, he can maybe do even better.”