Greenwood’s Wade leads pack after day one of 2025 KHSAA Boys Golf State Finals

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – It may be the end of the week for most, but for those participating in the 2025 Leachman Buick GMC Cadillac KHSAA Boys State Golf Final Rounds, Friday marked the beginning of an important weekend competition.

Much like on the girls side of things, which went down earlier in the week, the area was well represented over at the Bowling Green Country Club.

As far as those who were competing individually, Allen County-Scottsville’s Barton Rutledge, who was a top-3 finisher just a year ago, ended his opening round +5, tying him for 27th overall.

Bowling Green High School had a pair of Purples participating, both middle schoolers, as Paxton Fuqua and Rowdy Harris ended their days at +14 and +6, respectively.

News 40 spoke with Purples head coach Adam Whitt after day one and he shared what he saw out of his young guys, who performed pretty well given their age.

“I think the future’s bright for our program and  these guys being able to come in here and get rounds in tournament conditions is going to be huge for them in the future,” Whitt said. “I think both of them have hit it well and they’ve both learned some things so far through the first day, so we’ll come back and hopefully be better tomorrow.”

In team results, Greenwood saw five Gators hit the course on Friday.

Layton Richey, Whitt Glosick, Luke Usinger, Luke Richey and Eli Wade, as a collective group through 18 holes, ended off at +32, placing the team in seventh going into Saturday.

The top three for the Gators featured Glosick at +11, Layton Richey at +9, and Wade, who was the top golfer from the region on Friday with a -1 finish.

That score for the sophomore has him within the upper portion of play, sitting tied for sixth going into the last day, and he shared what may be serving as added motivation to play this good over the weekend.

“ I wanted to get top eight, if I get top eight, my dad’s going to take me to the Kentucky-Louisville game, so that was my goal, but we’re going to see how that goes, I guess,” Wade said.

“Eli’s really come on strong in the last few weeks, playing well, [and] he’s going to play well tomorrow, no doubt,” Greenwood boys golf head coach Dan Dillingham said. “Looking for big things from the rest of the guys, as well. Whenever you’re here at the state tournament, you have to handle the pressure and also you have to handle a good course. We are glad we have tomorrow, we get to come out and maybe redeem ourselves a little bit, play a little better, but it was a good day, overall, pretty good day for us.”