Straughn senior shoots 2-under, 69 in final round Thursday

Brooks Rabren finished in fourth place in the Alabama Golf Association’s 69th annual Boys’ State Junior Championship on Thursday at the Gadsden Country Club in Gadsden.

The Straughn senior shot a 2-under par 69 to finish the tournament at 3-under.

“Fourth place after a pretty poor first round is nothing to be too disappointed with,” Rabren said. “I fired a good second round.”

Rabren was referring to his first-round “disaster,” where he shot a 4-over 75. What plagued him the first day were two poor shots hit out of bounds, which led to two double bogeys on a par five and par four.

Alex Green of Point Clear had a three-round total of 12-under par to take the title.

Rabren got off to a solid start yesterday, parring the first five holes until making birdie on the par-three sixth. After posting a bogey on eight, Rabren made up for it with a birdie on No. 9 to hole out the front nine 1-under par.

Rabren birdied the par-five 12th and the par-three 13th to move to 4-under before bogeying the 16th.

What got Rabren within striking distance was his 4-under par second round.

On Wednesday’s 12th hole, the SHS standout made eagle after a “mediocre” start.

“I made that long put and started to feel my confidence come back,” he said. “I was going through the motions until then. I really dug in after that and started playing better.”

For the tournament, Rabren drained 10 birdies, parred 36 holes, had five bogeys and two double bogeys. He took advantage of the par fours and par fives, going 1-under and 3-under, respectively.

In spite of doing well on the par-fives, Rabren said he could’ve done better.

“I felt like I kind of struggled on them,” he said. “I bogeyed No. 3 the first day and there’s no excuse for that — same with No. 12. Par fives are usually the easiest holes out there and they provide good opportunities for birdies and eagles.”

Rabren will be back in action Aug. 6-9 for the Alabama Men’s Match Play Tournament in Union Grove.