The Bowie boy’s golf team made some school history on Monday and Tuesday as the Jackrabbits finished third at the 3A state golf tournament to bring home a bronze medal.
Bowie made up a nine shot lead the original third place team, Orangefield, had after the first day to overtake the Bobcats and earn the program’s first team medal at state.
The Jackrabbits were coming into the tournament with some hope they could compete amongst the top. The first time the program made it to state as a team two years ago, Bowie had a slim shot at trying to break into medal contention. A rain delay did not help things and the Jackrabbits finished in a respectable sixth place.
Two players from that team who were freshman, Cy Egenbacher and Andrew Sandhoff, were looking to do better two years later.
The weather was perfect on day one at the Jimmy Clay Golf Course. Coach Matthew Miller said the course was described as having nine holes with narrow fairways that heavily punished wayward tee shots and then nine holes with more open space where players could look to be more aggressive.
The first day it seemed like every team at the front of the leaderboard had about the best round of golf they had shot all season. Almost every team except the Jackrabbits.
Bowie was sitting in fifth place with a 325 score, which was good but not the best the team had shot all season. Egenbacher and Zac Harris shot the lowest score for the Jackrabbits as both shot 78. Sandhoff shot around what he usually has with an 82 and Hunter Lea was the fourth player who shot 87. The fifth golfer Rayder Mann was only one shot more than Lea with an 88, though his score did not count towards the team total on day one.
While first place Callisburg would go on to set 3A state records for lowest score and the first of two Brock teams was up by 14 shots in second place, third place Orangefield was up only nine shots after its best round by far and the team was frontloaded with a player who would go on to win the individual gold. If his teammates could faulter a bit on day two, the door would be open.
Bowie was not the only team in position to try and make a play for third place. Fourth place Gunter was only two shots ahead of the Jackrabbits and the teams were paired together for the second day. Maypearl and Diboll also were in the mix only one and two shots behind Bowie in sixth and seventh place.
Miller tried to ease his player’s mind heading into the second day, putting little pressure on them to try and keep them loose.
“We talked Monday night and the message was, you have no pressure,” Miller said. “You have 18 holes left for the year. Go out and have fun, enjoy yourself. Go post a number and see what can happen.”
Of all of the teams in the top six, three posted a better score on day two with Bowie improving the most. The weather was not quite as good with the temperature reaching the 90s and with a breeze affecting balls more than the windless day before had.
Still, four of the five players posted equal or better scores for Bowie the second day. Egenbacher shot a 78 again to lead the team with the lowest score. His two day total of 156 put him in a tie for ninth place individually.
Sandhoff made a two shot improvement as he shot 80 for a total of 162, which was the second lowest two day total for Bowie and put him in a tie for 24th.
Lea made the biggest jump, improving by eight strokes from day one as he shot a 79, the second lowest score of the day for Bowie. His two-day total was 166.
Mann also made a big jump, improving by seven strokes from day one as his 81 score was counted towards the second day total of 318, which was a seven stroke improvement from day one.
Harris did not quite have as good a day as day one. After tying for the team’s lowest score on day one, his 85 score did not count towards the team total though his 163 two-day total was the third lowest on the team.
After improving by seven shots, as important was that other team’s had worse days. Playing partners Gunter were nine shots worse, eventual champions Callisburg were 17 shots worse and most importantly Orangefield was 16 shots worse.
Bowie passed the Bobcats to finish in third place, its 643 two-day total five shots better, to earn the bronze medal.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.