To the victor go the donuts, at least in Liam Hart’s world.

A day after making some history by shooting a final round 71 at the Heritage Hills Resort on Oct. 24 in York, Pa. to win the PAA Class 3A state golf title, Hart, a junior at Holy Ghost, was greeted in his history class with three dozen Krispy Kreme congratulatory donuts, courtesy of Holy Ghost’s director of admissions Ryan Abramson ’94.

“He made some history, so I thought I’d honor him in his history class,” says Abramson.

Hart had to overcome a tough Heritage Hills course, a stellar field of golfers, and weather delays aplenty to win the state title with a 36-hole total of one-over par 143.  He becomes the second HGP golfer in the past three years to capture the state title, joining Steve Cerbara in 2015.

“Winning states and having the gold medal around my neck is just a huge feeling of satisfaction,” says Hart. “After all this time, everything I have worked for has finally paid off. It’s the biggest win of my golfing career, and I’m still letting it sink in.”

Hart started the final round in fourth place, but birdied the sixth, seventh, and ninth holes to surge to the top of the leaderboard. His steady play on the back nine—which included pars on the final three holes—won him the state title.

“I could not be more excited for Liam! He is genuinely one of the nicest young men I have ever coached,” says Holy Ghost Prep coach Mark Walder ’02. “I have never heard anyone from teammates to opposing coaches and players say anything but glowing things about Liam. He has always represented Holy Ghost Prep well on and off the golf course. 

“Liam is unflappable. He had many instances where other players would have lost focus and their rounds would have deteriorated. The rounds at Heritage Hills are six hours long, and there are many times during the round where players have to wait 10-15 minutes before hitting their next shot.  During these periods of wait there is a lot of time to let bad thought creep in and dwell on what you did wrong. 

“Liam's ability to stay in a good frame of mind and maintain his focus on his plan is the reason why he won. That sounds easy, but anyone who has played competitive golf knows how difficult that truly is.”