Birdie on final hole gives Hannibal’s Thomas his second Class 4 state championship

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — The swing, the contact and the carry were absolutely perfect.

“I felt like it was something out of a movie,” Quinn Thomas said.

An ending straight out of Hollywood came with it.

Heading to the final hole of the Class 4 boys state golf championships at Dalhousie Golf Club on Tuesday afternoon, Thomas trailed Poplar Bluffs’ Landon Barks by one stroke for the individual state title, but he knew playing the 537-yard, par-5 hole gave him an opportunity.

Piping his drive nearly 380 yards into the middle of the fairway heightened his chances.

“Yeah, I hit it really good,” the Hannibal senior golfer said.

He took advantage of it. Thomas played his approach shot to about 45 feet — the green measures 105 feet from front to back and has about a 15-foot change in elevation in the middle — and rolled his eagle putt to about 3 feet.

Barks made bogey on the hole, missing a 10-footer for par and tapping in to fall to even-par 144 for the 36-hole event. Thomas then sank his short putt that fell off slightly to the right, pumping his fist as it went in to give him a birdie, a 1-under 143 total and his second state championship.

“I really felt it when about seven of my friends just yelled at the top of their lungs,” Thomas said. “I definitely felt it then. I got loud after that.”

Thomas bookended his career as the best Class 4 golfer in the state, having won the title as a freshman in 2021 at Twin Hills Golf & Country Club in Joplin, Mo.

He clinched both crowns in similar fashion, making a 3-foot putt that broke right and winning by a stroke each time.

“It was quite something,” Thomas said. 

The Maryville University signee began the second day of the 36-hole tournament tied for the lead at 1-under 71, but he endured kind of a topsy-turvy front nine with two birdies and three bogeys that left him one off the lead at the turn.

“I wasn’t out of it,” Thomas said. “I knew that.”

He opened the back nine with a birdie on the par-4 10th hole and then rolled in par putts on six of the next seven holes, setting up the drama on the 18th.

“I felt good and I felt like I shot a 32 on the back nine when I shot a 35,” Thomas said.

That was good enough for a lifetime memory and a spot in championship history.

“It means a lot more because I had my friends here this time and a lot of support,” Thomas said. “So everything here felt 10 times more emotional because I also had some of my teammates here too. This just meant a lot.”