ST. GEORGE - Not good enough.
Those were the words of the day as Desert Hills eclipsed Region 9 opponents Cedar, Canyon View and Hurricane in Thursday's 3A golf tournament at Sky Mountain.

Desert Hills finished with 308, whilst Hurricane, Canyon View and Cedar finished with 331, 342 and 385, respectively.

Desert Hills' stars Christian Adams and Scott Murdoch tied for first place overall with a score of 74 apiece, but were none too satisfied with their performances.

"I was hitting (the ball) pretty bad off the tee," Adams said. "I got into some trouble a few times. I had a few short shots within a hundred yards, and I was hitting most of them easily within 10-feet (of the hole), but I just couldn't convert my putts, which is really frustrating.

Adams stayed even for most of the front nine, finishing 1-over after striking a bogey on hole No. 7. A birdie on 10 leveled him out, but bogies on No. 12 and No. 14 left him dangling at 2-over.

"If I would've made my putts (my score) would've been a lot better," he said. "There's always room for improvement out there."

Murdoch found himself in a rut early into the back nine where a triple-bogey tarnished an otherwise impressive performance.

"Right now I think I'm really grinding," Murdoch said. "I'm making a lot of dumb mistakes out there. But I'm not giving up. Normally I'm pretty weak - I give up. But today I didn't. I grinded it through and I'm pretty happy with the way I finished."

Hurricane's Benson Rich was the lone man amongst Desert Hills' elite in the top four, scoring 79 and tying for second with Desert Hills' Michael Orchard.

"I like this course because we play here every day," said Rich. "It's nothing new to me. I just wasn't able to get anything good today, but my score turned out okay. I got better as we went."

The course proved problematic for many of the day's participants, including Cedar athlete Trajan Evans who struggled with his drive throughout the contest and ended up with a score of 96.

"You can't really miss on this course," he said despairingly. "It's an intimidating course because of the rough - it's brutal. You've got to be accurate and today I wasn't."

"The greens just roll out like crazy," added Desert Hills' Thomas Rich, who shot an 87. "You barely tap (the ball) and it goes a mile. It just kind of took us all off guard, but we were able to figure it out towards the end."

Still, their lukewarm performance - by their standards - has the Thunder anxious about the State tournament, which is only two weeks away, a date that seems disturbingly close.

"We're not ready (for State) yet, but we're getting there," said Desert Hills coach Ron Denos. "We're still looking for that fourth player to be consistent. That's what we're trying to find."