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St. Marys’ Lawhon signs to golf at West Liberty

Photo by Kerry Patrick On Thursday inside the St. Marys High School auditorium, Blue Devil senior Brandon Lawhon (seated in the middle) signed with the West Liberty University men’s golf program. Joining Lawhon on stage are, front row from left: his mother and father , Melissa and Marty Lawhon. Standing in the back row are his brother, Preston Lawhon, and grandmother, Judy Lawhon. Brandon Lawhon won medalist honors at this year’s Class A state tournament.

ST. MARYS — Perseverance carried Brandon Lawhon on a path which began on the bottom rung as a freshman as a member of the St. Marys varsity golf team to elite status among his peers by his senior year.

The upward trend took yet another step on Thursday when Lawhon signed the dotted line to join the West Liberty University men’s golf team next season. Lawhon, who enters his second season starting on the Blue Devils’ boys basketball team, closed out his high school golf career as Class A’s individual medalist and joined his teammates in a threepeat as state champions.

“This is cool because all the hard work I’ve put in the past few years finally comes out on ink,” said Lawhon following his signing ceremony at the high school auditorium. “It makes it official that I am going to the next level.

“Choosing a college was really difficult because they all offer so many great things. At the end of the day, West Liberty was the best fit for me. I’ll be doing golf four years, but their pre-med program is something I will have my whole life.

“West Liberty offers the best academics for me, and as a cherry on top they do have a good golf program that hopefully I can step into and provide some good scores.”

Lawhon recalls the early beginnings of his golf career when he was fifth on a depth chart which featured four freshman classmates seeded ahead of him. Eventually, he became a state qualifier that same season and as they say, the rest is history.

“To be honest, when I was a freshman I never thought something like this would happen,” Lawhon said. “I had fun with the sport, but it was nothing I really took seriously. After playing badly, a fire lit under me and I started working then started getting better and better. I kept getting awards and then I began to think this could take me to the next level. And here I am.”

Listed high on Lawson’s list of achievements were Little Kanawha Conference’s Player of the Year in 2019, earning all-state recognition the following season and competing as a member of a St. Marys program which won three straight state titles.

“I’ve followed the St. Marys golf program since the beginning,” St. Marys third-year coach Catie Hamilton said.

“I wasn’t coaching during Brandon’s freshman year, but to see him qualify as a individual and how much he has grown from that moment has been incredible. He has made so much progress, and there has a been a lot of maturity that has come with that.

“During his senior year, he took on more of a leadership role and helped the younger ones grow. So his journey has been something special.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com

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