Eagles Soar At The Shore
SYRACUSE – It was a very special day at South Shore Golf Club for Columbia City head coach Andrew Thompson. For the first time in his nine years as the Eagles head coach, his team brought home a first place finish in an invitational.
The Eagles were led by a pair of impressive rounds from Tyler Green and Spencer Klimek, both of which shot a 75. City shot a total team score of 310 to edge out Homestead (312) for the title at Saturday’s annual Wawasee Invitational.
“Today was really about persevering,” began Thompson. “The greens weren’t holding, it was a fast track, the guys were frustrated. But, they stuck with it and were kind of riding the storm out. It was the best day we’ve had to golf all year, but the course was frustrating in places. Like I said, our guys persevered.”
Max Dryer shot a 79 for the Eagles. City’s final score was rounded out Spencer McCammon’s 81 while Cameron Slavich shot the fifth score, an 86, for the winning team.
NorthWood’s Alec Dutkowski (73) was the medalist for the event.
Wawasee Gives ‘Four-Gettable’ Performance At Own Invite
In golf it is customary for a player to yell “Fore!” when a bad shot may strike another player on the course. The Wawasee golf team was left painfully shouting “Four!” after a frustrating performance on South Shore’s par five number four in Saturday’s invitational.
The four-gettable performance was more than just a one hole deal as Wawasee struggled to find any rhythm on the course and finished with a score of 331.
“We didn’t play very well,” Wawasee head coach Steve Coverstone stated bluntly. “We had trouble with number four, the pin was front right. That’s a tricky placement. If you get past it, you have to make it or you’re off the green, we were off the green a lot.”
Wawasee’s score at the turn was indicative of the poor performances on the fourth green. Not a single Warrior had a score less than a 41 at the turn on their home course. The back nine proved to be better for some Wawasee players, but not enough to make a difference in the final standings.
Tristen Atwood and Cal Heinisch gave the Warriors something to smile about on the back nine as both turned in sub-40 scores. Heinisch, after shooting a 46 on the front, shot a 38 to rally for a final score of 84. Atwood had the biggest turnaround of the day as he shot a 33 on the back and would finish with a 77.
Jeffrey Moore, Maclain Herr and Mason Germonprez all had rounds that they would like to soon forget, respectively finishing with an 82, 88 and 88.
Wawasee has it goals set high this year and Saturday’s performance was really the first hiccup on the young season for the Warriors. They managed to finish ahead of Northern Lakes Conference foes Northridge (332) and Goshen (380) but were stuck looking up at rivals NorthWood (325) Plymouth (317) and Warsaw (315). Despite that, Coverstone is not hitting the panic button.
“The conference is good, it’s tough,” Coverstone stated. “But am I worried? No. We’re better than we played today.”
Hollar, Jensen Pace Tigers To Third Place Finish
The Warsaw golf team did not finish as strong as it had hoped it would have in Saturday’s Wawasee invite but the Tigers still shot a 315 to claim third place in the annual event.
Michael Jensen was the story of the front nine for the Orange and Black. Jensen shot right on par, 36, to lead Warsaw at the turn. A 40 on the back side left Jensen with a 76 at the end of the afternoon, tied with Jonny Hollar for the team’s low score.
Hollar used a 39 on the front and 37 on the back to earn his 76. Brandon Eckert and Evan Cultice also shot sub-40 on the front and would finish with scores of 84 and 79, respectively. Luke Johnson signed for a 91 for the Tigers fifth score.
Warsaw will host the annual Joe Harris Shootout Invitational at Rozella Ford Golf Club Tuesday evening. Wawasee will also play in the event.
Whitko Still Struggles At The Shore
It was a rough night Thursday at South Shore Golf Club for the Whitko Wildcats as they dropped two of three matches. The Wildcats returned to Syracuse for the Wawasee Invite Saturday morning and were once again left with more questions than answers.
Only Will Peters was able to sign for a sub-90 score for Whitko. Peters accomplished that behind a steady 41 performance on the front nine to let him tally an 88 for the day. Cole Bechtold once again had trouble with the front nine, shooting a 51 to leave him with a 94.
Grady Clingerman had his moments but would settle for a 98 while Tim Gensch and Matt Hathaway both shot a 103 for Whitko.
The Wildcats will get into conference play Tuesday when they host Manchester and Northfield.