Allen County-Scottsville’s Barton Rutledge and Greenwood’s Layton Richey have long been joined at the hip on the golf course.

Both juniors and longtime good friends, Rutledge and Richey battled back and forth all through a steamy and ultimately rainy Region 3 Boys’ Golf Tournament at Indian Hills Country Club on Monday.

Long day, but 18 holes still wasn’t enough – after a lengthy delay of nearly an hour due to lightning in the area, Rutledge and Richey trudged out to the No. 11 hole for a playoff to decide the champion.

With the individual regular championship on the line, it was Rutledge who came up with one last clutch shot to edge Richey in a one-hole playoff to claim the championship.

Greenwood’s boys won the team championship with a combined 10-over par 294, four shots better than runner-up Bowling Green (298). Both teams advance to next Monday’s sub-state tournament at Hopkinsville Country Club.

Rutledge and Richey will be there in Hopkinsville as well, of course, after settling the individual championship at Indian Hills. After both ended their 18 holes at 4-under par 67 while playing in the same group – a regular occurrence for the pair.

“We play about every day together, almost, at Olde Stone,” Rutledge said. “It’s fun always to play with your best friend every single day.”

Off the tee, Richey grabbed the early advantage with a drive about 40 yards closer to the par-four No. 11 hole. Rutledge did drop a solid tee shot into the fairway, but it was the approach shot that provided separation. Richey dropped in a shot on the green that rolled past the cup for a putt of about 20 feet. Rutledge hit a wedge shot that fell near the hole and stopped about three feet from the cup. Richey rolled his longer put just to the left, and Rutledge tapped in for a birdie to secure the win.

“His hand actually came off the club a little bit after his tee shot, but Barton – and I say this as a great compliment – is one of the most boring golfers you’re going to watch,” ACS coach Scott Stamper said. “He very rarely hits it into trouble, hits a ton of greens and when his putter gets going he makes some birdies. So I really wasn’t worried too much when I saw the ball flight. We got to the ball and I just mentioned to Barton that ‘Hey, with this rain it may take a little less spin off of it, may cause it to jump a little bit so let’s focus on the number.’ I think he had 90 yards to the pin – he said he wanted to try and play it 87 and as the coach I thought sounded perfect to me because anything past the pin is not where you want to be on this hole.”

That approach shot was perfect execution of Rutledge’s plan, but even he was surprised at how well it turned out.

“Man, it played out real nice – it got a good kick,” Rutledge said. “I didn’t think it was going to end up where it was off the face, but it came out perfect so anything can happen.”

Richey still led Greenwood to the team title on a day when the Gators nicely bunched up their scores. Ryan Loiars tied for seventh with a 4-over 75, teammates Keegan Unick and Eli Wade tied for 10th at 5-over 76.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be playing your best golf come late September and heading to sub-state,” Greenwood coach Garrett Kastelic said. “So yeah, great feeling and great win by the team. I know Layton Richey had an incredible day and I think collectively for four on your team to shoot under 80 is really good especially this time of year.”

Bowling Green held off third-place Allen-County Scottsville by three strokes to claim the other sub-state qualifying spot. The Purples got huge efforts from a pair of young golfers, as freshman Johnny Brown finished third overall with a 2-under 69 and seventh-grader Rowdy Harris was fourth with a 1-under 70. Paxton Fuqua, also a seventh-grader, tied for 22nd with a 79 and seniors Eli Coates and Jake Price both carded 80s.

“I think the term that was used to me on the last hole was ahead of schedule,” Bowling Green coach Adam Whitt said of his team. “It was really, really impressive to watch those young kids play those two rounds. That’s our best number of the year when we kind of needed it the most. I’m just extremely, extremely proud of a group that probably had to listen to people tell them what they weren’t all year with the success we had over the last two years. We would even go places and teams would tell them well, they’re not last year’s Bowling Green and they’re not there yet.

“For them to be able to put this little feather in their cap, just really, really proud of how hard they worked.”

Joining Rutledge at next week’s sub-state tournament as an individual qualifier was ACS teammate Eli Stamper, who fired a 74 to tie Metcalfe County’s Ben Shirley for fifth place overall. Franklin-Simpson’s Dylan Fiveash (75), Glasgow’s Griffin Jackson (75), Cumberland County’s Kane Cross (77), Hart County’s Cooper Sloan (77), Metcalfe County’s Noah Emmitt (77), South Warren’s Miles Deaton (77) and South Warren’s Brady Patterson (78) also advanced as individual qualifiers.

Patterson had to survive a six-man playoff for the final qualifying spot after tying for 16th with a 7-over 78. Patterson and Hunter Holloway advanced past the first playoff hole after both made par, but on the second hole Patterson earned the spot with another par. Holloway will serve as alternate.

Among area teams, Franklin-Simpson finished fifth with a 30-over 314, followed by South Warren (sixth, 320), Logan County (seventh, 321), Glasgow (ninth, 329), Barren County (10th, 333), Warren East (14th, 379) and Edmonson County (16th, 395).