Menu
Huber ends senior season at Greenwood Regional
GREENWOOD -- GHS senior Wade Huber stormed into Hickory Creek Golf Course Thursday focused, with his sights targeted on Franklin and the state finals. However, Huber powered in a 75 and fell just short of moving on.
"Overall I think I played well," Huber said. "I left some shots out there on the back nine. I was even through 11 holes and then bogied four of my last seven holes. Overall, I'm not complaining about anything."
Hickory Stick has been anything but kind to the Tiger Cubs over the years. Repeatedly they have found themselves entering the regional and repeatedly the course has bared its teeth and taken a bite out of them. GHS head coach Donovan Wheeler acknowledged his senior's round and just how unkind the course has been to his players.
"I thought it was absolutely -- well I'm looking for some great piece of semantics -- but really it was just fantastic is what it was," Wheeler said of Huber's round. "Because we've had, how shall I say it -- a tortured history here. There's all the mystic, there's the Cathedral, the Avon and the Center Grove and you have all of this 'toughest regional in the state' stuff hanging over you.
"I've had a lot of kids come here and kind of take a swan song approach to it," he continued. "Like I said before, it's just so easy when you run into trouble to just say, 'Well it's the regional, I made it'. You could just tell watching Wade play his attitude was, no, I'm not here just to take my bows; this is not an encore to me. I'm here to compete."
Huber began the day on the back nine and was in complete control of his game until just before the turn. On his ninth hole, Huber carded a double-bogie and move to two-over par at the turn.
Instead of withering under the pressure, the senior striker collected himself and attacked the second nine.
Huber birdied the opening two holes to move back to even par, but just as it had so many times, Hickory Stick began to swallow up shots. Huber bogied four of his final seven holes, but continued to battle up until the end. Closing out his high school career in true Wade Huber fashion, he grinded his way to a par on the final hole to record his 75 on the day.
"The great thing about Wade is, here's a kid where all the attention was on Brad (Haussin) and when Brad wasn't playing hot Luke (Crimmins) was playing hot, then throw in Jimmy (Wheeler) a couple of times. Wade had his moments, but Wade was always that utility infielder all season, kind of behind the scenes. You know, oh by the way, Wade shot a 42, Wade threw in a 38, then you get late in the season and boom 75, boom 73 and then follow it up with this," Wheeler said.
In arguably the strongest regional in the state, Wheeler was proud of the grit his senior showed and the performance he gave. At a course that has stung the best GHS could throw at it, Huber was able to tame the links.
"He did it in an environment, in an arena where his attitude was 'I don't really care that Cathedral is here. I don't care if Avon is here.' I think that was very, very impressive," Wheeler said.