The Hurricane Invitational at Southern Oaks is one of just a handful of two-day 36 hole golf tournaments played during the regular high school season.

The tournament’s format is designed to capture the feel of what state championship play will be like for the fortunate teams that qualify to compete for state tittles at the end of the season.

It should not be a surprise that a player and a team, both with experience in 36 hole championships, claimed wins at Southern Oaks,

Wren’s Dylan Park, who played on the Hurricanes’ state AAA championship team last year, shot rounds of 68 and 67 to edge out Blue Ridge’s Owen Kinnunen for medalist honors.

Kinnunen and his teammate Dawson Szabo went 10-under par in the final round to pass the defending 5A DII champions from Hanna and highly ranked Greenville for the team title.

The Blue Ridge team shot an amazing 278 total for the win.

Both the team and individual leader boards featured an impressive list of teams ranked in the midseason South Carolina Golf Coaches Poll, committed college recruits and highly ranked junior golfers.

As a senior, the win was special for Park, the future Winthrop University golfer.

Playing in a noticeable wind Park, who earlier in the season won the Yellow Jacket championship at Brookstone Meadows, got his tournament play off to a good start.

“I had a pretty smooth opening round,” Park said.”I made a couple of mistakes but I got six birdies and had the lead,” he said.

Park followed up his opening round 68 with a second round 67 for a 135 total and then had to hold his breath.

“I knew there were a lot of good players in the field. I finished ahead of them and watched them finish on 18,” he said.

On the course the Blue Ridge duo of Kinnunen and Szabo kept putting red numbers on their scorecards closing in on Park for medalist honors and Hanna for the team title.

The battle for the individual win went down to the last hole.

Kinnunen trailed Park by a shot and had a chance at an eagle to steal the win.

The Blue Ridge senior missed his chance for an eagle and the win, but still had a birdie chance to tie, but his second putt missed as well as Park escaped the close call to hang on for the win,

“It means a lot to me as a senior to win our school’s tournament. It gives me a boost for the rest of the year,” he said.

Not only did Park finish in front of Kinnunen, but the rest of the All-Tournament team brought some exceptional credentials with them to the event.

After Kinnunen, who will play college golf at Southern Wesleyan, last year’s AAA state champion Szabo was tied with five other golfers for third place.

Riverside’s Brennan Kelly, Hanna’s Bennett Scaletta, future Clemson golfer Tip Price from Greenville and Dorman’s Casey Kosney, who will play college golf at Colorado all tied at 4-under par 140.

On the strength of Kinnunen and Szabo’s 10 under par second day total, the Tigers topped Hanna and Greenville by 7 shots for the win.

High School matches continue for the week, but this weekend will be the biggest non championship event of the year as the top teams compete in the Southern Cross.

Park and the Wren team will be at the Palmetto Golf Club as will many of the other top teams in the state.

Scores from the Hurricane Invitational.