The power might have been knocked out at Gallery Golf Course last Friday, but not on Shane Wells’ golf game.

A garbage truck backed into a transformer just as the first round of the 4A boys District 1 Tournament was getting under way, knocking out power to the Gallery clubhouse. The loss of electricity didn’t effect Wells, as the senior shot a six-over par 78 putting him in a five-way tie for eight-place, just two strokes off the lead. Chad Gorney of Cascade and L.B. Stave and Jason Chryssicas, both from Jackson, are in first place after each carded a 76 on the day.

“He’s right in the middle of a large pack of golfers,” said head coach John Matzen about Wells’ round. “It’s anyone’s game right now.”

On a beautiful sunny day, Wells was even after nine holes and continued his strong play as he made the turn. The left-hander was on the green in regulation each of the next three holes and barely missed birdie putts on all three of them.

He ran into his first spot of trouble on 12, making double bogey. On the next hole Wells’ second shot was long of the green and went out of bounds and he ended up with a triple-bogey seven.

“Overall he played well,” Matzen said about Wells’ round. “He ran into the same problem that he has been having lately and that is playing good for most of the round but then getting in trouble on a couple of holes. Just two holes elevated his score – he was five over on 13 and 14.”

Wells bogied 15, birdied the par-5 16th and then bogied 17. He finished his round with a par on the 18th and final hole.

It should be a dogfight to determine who moves onto the state tournament next week in Richland, as 24 golfers are within four shots of the lead, with only the top 15 moving on. Wells is looking to get back to the state tourney after making it as a freshman and sophomore. Last year he had a bad second round of district’s at Kayak Point and failed to advance.

Wells was one of three Wildcat golfers to make the cut and move on to the second round. Sophomores Chris Reedy and Kyle Saar each shot a 86 to advance to the second round which was held at Useless Bay Golf & Country Club yesterday (results will be published in the next edition of the Whidbey News-Times). Of the 85 golfers, 43 made the cut.

“They and I thought with where they scored they wouldn’t make it,” said Matzen about Saar and Reedy’s day. “We thought the cut would be a lot lower, but the course played a lot tougher.”

Matzen and many of the other coaches and golfers were surprised by the high scores turned in on Friday. He believed that Gallery’s small fast greens and the tournament being played under summer rules attributed to the high scores

“When I saw the first group coming in and there were some scores in the high-70s and low 80s I was surprised,” he said. “But fast greens and playing summer rules for the first time made things tough. It was a good test of golf.”

With summer rules a golfer cannot mark and clean his ball like they can playing winter rules. The golfer must play the ball where it lies.

Reedy and Saar would each have to shoot the lights out and have a lot of people drop down in the second round to move onto the state tourney, but having the two sophomores reach the second round will be good experience for the next two years.

“For both of them making the cut is good and getting another competitive round in is great for their development,” Matzen said.

District 1 Tournament – Round 1

At Gallery G.C.

18 holes, par 72

Individual results-Gorney (C), Chryssicas (J), Stave (J) 76; Peterson (C), Pauley (K), Slayton (MV), Knue (MV) 77; Moore (A), Hansen (J), Wood (K), VanDaVeer (MP), Wells (OH) 78; Fletcher (A), Koppenberg (E), Hibbitt (J), Brengman (LS), Calamaro (S), Nichols (S) 79; Brundage (C), Ohm (J), Gihm (K), Wedler (K), Hanson (SW) 80; Valentine (MV), Merisko (S) 81; Rauch (S), Shriver (MP), Linn (M), Fredlund (MV) 82; Gruger (SW) 83; Martin (M) 84; Millar (MP) 85; Haynes (LS), Johnson (MP), Hanson (M), Reedy (OH), Saar (OH), Sena-Hopkins (SW) 86; Melseth (C), Schmaus (EW), Helleren (EW), Nishikawa (LS) 87.

Oak Harbor individual results: Shane Wells 78, Kyle Saar 86, Chris Reedy 86, Drew Bashor 92, Eric Taylor 99.