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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOMEWOOD – Chase Kyes already entered the 2025 AHSAA State Golf Championship in rarified air, but he cemented his legacy with a third state title to cap off his high-school golf career.

Kyes won Class 6A individual medalist honors with a first-place finish on Tuesday, May 13 at RTJ Oxmoor Valley’s Ridge course, leading the way for a second-place finish for Spain Park in the team standings.

The Jags as a whole finished at 4-over-par to secure their second-straight map trophy, 18 strokes behind Homewood, which finished 14-under-par after none of their scoring golfers shot higher than a 73 on either round of the tournament.

For all of the Patriots’ success though, none of them could touch Kyes, who shot 66 on both rounds to finish with a one-stroke lead over Cullman’s Will Drake in the individual standings.

The Jags had to battle the elements on day one as they were pulled off the course twice due to lightning in the area. That forced multiple holes from the first round to be played on day two, but Kyes remained in his element throughout the round.

Kyes birdied the first, second and third holes on the Ridge course before hitting his lone bogey of the entire tournament on the par-3 fifth hole. He then secured birdies on both the seventh and eighth holes before holing out with a four on the par-5 12th hole and a three on the par-4 17th hole.

He carried that momentum into the second round where he once again birdied the third hole and carried that into a birdie on the par-4 fourth hole. He also got a birdie on the seventh hole ahead of the end of the front nine, his second of the tournament.

Over on the back nine, he hit three birdies on the 12th, 15th and 17th holes, with his birdies on 12 and 17 repeating his first-round success.

That paved the way for him to finish a stroke above Drake at 12-under-par and win the medalist honors once again after taking first place in Class 7A as a sophomore and junior.

Kyes now joins Bobby Wyatt, Robby Shelton, Thomas Ponder, William Sellers and Hunter Hamrick as the only men to win at least three AHSAA individual state golf titles. Wyatt is alone atop the standings with four.

It is also Kyes’ 17th individual tournament win of his varsity career dating back to his first tournament start in seventh grade in 2020 at the David Miller Memorial. He is signed to play golf at the University of Tennessee after originally committing to Alabama.

Kyes was far from the only impressive performer for the Jags as Adam Russell, Luke Philley, Landon Crane and Rocco Saia each chipped in to help their team finish as the runner-up.

Russell was the second-best golfer for Spain Park in both rounds. He finished the first round at an even-par 72 after birdieing the second and ninth holes but bogeying the eighth and 15th holes. He then improved to shoot a 2-under-par 70 in the second round, grabbing birdies on the fifth, 12th and 13th holes, two of those being par-3 holes. The lone blemish of the round was a bogey on the par-4 10th hole.

Philley shot a 73 in his first round but had two of the highlights of the day with eagles on the par-5 Hole 2 and par-4 Hole 7. He then got a birdie on Hole 8 but ended the round with five bogeys, including one double bogey on the par-5 Hole 17.

Philley followed it up with a 75 in the second round thanks to birdies on the second, fifth, seventh and 12th holes.

Crane was the fourth scoring golfer in the first round with an 82, including a birdie on the second hole. Saia broke through to shoot a 76 in the second round after an 83 in the first round, securing birdies on the third, sixth, 10th and 12th holes.

The Jags weren’t the only ones to compete as Briarwood’s Cariann Beatty and Oak Mountain’s Caroline Gardner took part in the girls individual competitions.

Beatty finished in a tie for ninth in the Class 6A girls standings at 15-over-par. She shot an 81 in the first round with a birdie on the par-3 16th hole before improving by three strokes in the second round for a 78.

Gardner came in a tie for 15th in the Class 7A individual standings with a 22-over-par. She recorded a birdie on the par-3 fourth hole as part of a first-round score of 85, and she dropped that score by four strokes in the second round to shoot an 81.