Battlefield captures team, individual crowns

By Brian Hunsicker

Published: October 14, 2008

Andrew Lister wasn’t tired, though it would’ve been a perfectly acceptable excuse. His Monday flight from Miami, where he played in a junior tournament, was delayed by an hour; he guessed he arrived home sometime before 1 a.m.
Even then, the Battlefield sophomore wasn’t ready for bed. He wanted to stay up, despite a 9 a.m. tee time at Tuesday’s Northwest Regional golf tournament and the long drive from Haymarket to Triangle. Eventually, his father made the decision for him — it really was time for bed — and Lister listened.
It may not have been much sleep, but Lister looked plenty awake. A back-nine 31, five strokes under par, propelled him to the regional title; his five-under 67 also led Battlefield to its first team title as well. For the first time, the Bobcats will take a full complement of six golfers to next week’s state tournament.
After years of progress, the moment had finally arrived.
“I’ve seen it in these boys. We’ve talked about it. I’ve hinted towards it,” Bobcats coach John Tillman said. “I always said that we’re trying to get to that spot, trying to get there, trying to get there. This is there. This is where I envisioned them being able to play.”
Battlefield got solid play from the rest of its top four to overtake Loudoun Valley, which had beaten the Bobcats in the Cedar Run District tournament. Justin Riley was the sixth medalist with a 74, Jordan Pastor finished with a 75 and Blake Forst shot a 78.
But the catalyst was Lister, who was four shots better than anyone else in the field.
Like he did at the district tournament, Lister got hot on the second nine — he started play on No. 10 — and carried it through the finish.
“What really got me going was I missed a three-foot birdie on No. 1,” he said. “And after that, I started making everything.”
Luck played a role, too. On the uphill, 368-yard par-4 third hole, Lister hit his tee shot well right. It bounced on the cart path; but instead of taking a bounce into the nearby trees, it kept going. And going.
When his ball stopped, it had rolled back into the rough, 40 feet to the right of the front of the green. Lister birdied the hole, and the hot streak was on.
“Usually when you hit the cart path, it ends up worse,” Lister said. “But that time, it helped me out.”