Warsaw’s Tim Rata takes a look at his chip shot on No. 3 at the Warsaw Golf Regional Thursday morning. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – The term ‘course management’ was bandied about quite a bit Thursday at Stonehenge Golf Club. Players and coaches, savvy parents and old golf vets alike all had their own versions of how to navigate the familiar track at the country club, and those who did it best had some good fish stories to tell after the playing of the Warsaw Golf Regional.

It became a story of who would make the crucial mistakes, and unfortunately for the home-seated Warsaw Tigers, a few killer holes ousted the Tigers from the state tournament after taking fourth in the team standings. Trying to catch Fort Wayne Carroll, which had posted a 312 on the board well before Warsaw came in, the Tigers had some uncharacteristic hiccups on its home course that its 315 wouldn’t forgive.

“There’s so many places,” began Warsaw head coach Rich Haddad with a frustrated laugh, “I guarantee you every guy can come up with a few strokes. One of the tough things about golf is you hit a tough shot and get away with it.

“A couple of the guys that had big numbers on big holes, it really cost them. There’s shots out there that could have had a three or four stroke swing if one of them had been in play. Turns out, a few shots cost us a lot of strokes.”

Haddad didn’t point the blame at any one player in particular, rather a mismanagement of scenarios. A 12 on the tenth hole by Tim Rata was a brutal blow, but his seven on the island green No. 2 and a six on No. 8 didn’t help his 88, which was a keeper score. Luke Delp and Luke Johnson both had 77s, very respectable rounds, but had moments, including a triple by Delp on No. 6 and Johnson had seven bogeys, leaving more strokes on the course.

NorthWood’s Taylor Weigand

“Today we had three guys shoot well, two guys just didn’t have good days and we needed one of them to have a good day and we came up just a little bit short,” Haddad said.

Warsaw did have its No. 1 golfer, Sam Yeager, shoot a 73 to crack the state finals as an individual. The junior was rock solid, going one-under on the front nine at 34 before finishing with a 39 on the back half to crown his advancement to next week’s finals. Even his 34 was close to finding a penalty stroke as a shot on nine barely stayed inbounds, which mercifully became a birdie.

Thomas Meier wrapped up Warsaw’s scores with an 89.

NorthWood wasn’t able to find the magic it did last week at the Northridge sectional, falling well off the pace with a 339 and 15th place, which was behind both Northridge (333) and Fairfield (327) which it beat handily at Meadow Valley a week ago.

Seth Hogan paced the Panthers with an 82, followed by an 84 from Caleb Lung, 86 from Taylor Weigand, 87 from Nick Sherk and 88 from Jacob Falk. For a team that found itself all lumped right near 80 a week ago in its four scores, the jump in values left Panthers head coach Trevor Shields a little disappointed.

“We found ourselves above the hole too much,” Shields said. “We didn’t have great scores in terms of what we expected to play, but it was mismanagement. We got above the hole too much, which coming back down, we didn’t respect that downhill putts and that took us out of pars right away. Now we are putting back uphill for bogeys from 15 to 20 feet and we end up with some three and four putts.

“We just missed in a lot of areas that we should have. It just wasn’t our day.”

The Northern Lakes Conference did have three players reach the State Finals, with Yeager joining Northridge’s Luke Morrison and Plymouth’s Micah Calhoun, who both shot 74 to advance. Manchester’s Harley Kruschwitz, just a freshman, shot a 73 to advance as did Fort Wayne Canterbury’s Michael Brothers with his 73.

Triton’s Braden Kreft

“Penalty strokes came down to it,” noted Triton senior Braden Kreft, who shot an 88 as an individual to finish his final round as a high schooler. “Bad swings with the driver and missing some putts really hurt. If you get in the wrong spot here, it’s disaster. Putts weren’t falling and it started adding up. It was the perfect storm.”

Kreft led a Triton team that won five tournament titles, including the Hoosier North Athletic Conference championship. “It’s disappointing to go out this way, but at the same time, it’s good to play my better golf down the stretch. I’ve never been to regional before, so this was a nice way to end it.”

Dwenger’s championship 298 had its top two scores serve as co-medalist tallies in 71s from Luke Miller and Logan Ryan, both shooting par on the Stonehenge layout. Tyler Fink and Ariel DeLuna both had 78s to conclude the scoring for the Saints. Homestead was led by Austin Render’s 74 from the No. 5 position and Carroll had Cayden Yourdon shoot a 73 from the No. 3 position.

Full individual results can be found on ihsaa.org.

The IHSAA Boys Golf State Finals two-day tournament begins Tuesday morning at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel.

Final Team Scores (top three teams advance to the IHSAA State Finals):

* FW Dwenger 298
* Homestead 304
* FW Carroll 312
Warsaw 315
FW Canterbury 318
Plymouth 320
Culver Academy 323
Penn 326
Fairfield 327
SB St. Joe 330
Leo 330
Northridge 333
Angola 334
Northwestern 338
NorthWood 339
Western 339
Peru 344
Mishawaka Marian 362

Warsaw’s Luke Johnson