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Tiger Cubs cruise to county championship
CLOVERDALE -- It was a night of firsts for Luke Crimmins Thursday night at the Clover Meadows Golf Course.
For the first time in his high school career, he made the all-county golf team, but that wasn't the real honor. The real honor came when he found out that he was the medalist of the meet.
"It feels really good because the last two years I haven't made the all county team, I made the all conference team but I haven't ever made the all county before," Crimmins said. "So it's fun to win it; it's kind of like giving a senior gift to myself."
Crimmins carded a 38 for the evening, leading Greencastle to the 2009 Putnam County Championship. Greencastle won the match with a combined score of 170, squeaking by Cloverdale's 175, and had all five members of the squad make the all-county squad.
"Luke had a great game; he played a very steady round and managed the course very well and I'm very happy we got the win," GHS Coach Donavan Wheeler said.
But for Wheeler, getting the win wasn't nearly as important as the experience that his team got Thursday.
"This is probably in many ways a good experience for some of these guys that struggled a little bit today," Wheeler said. "Because these are very talented kids and I think that them getting the experience in what they experienced today was a good thing in the end.
"Now they understand the importance of decision making and we have conference on Saturday on a golf course that is equally challenging, so hopefully they learned something from this today," Wheeler added.
The back nine of Meadows did prove to be a challenge for the experienced Tiger Cubs. Wade Huber turned in the second lowest score for Greencastle, and that was a 41. Haussin, who has been one of the Tiger Cubs top golfers, finished with a 45. Jimmy Wheeler and Raymond Stinson both carded a 46 while Brad
"This is a very tough nine-hole layout to begin with and it punishes you severely for any mistake you make, so the margin of error is very small to start. And we are in a rough spot right now, but this isn't the first time that we have been in this situation before and we will prevail," Wheeler said.
The Clovers might have come up short Thursday, losing the county championship by five strokes, but CHS Coach Doug Wokoun doesn't really feel that way.
"We played pretty well. We are capable of playing better, but for where we have been already this week; today was good day," Wokoun said. "We are getting better. We got ourselves into a very large hole at the beginning of this week, so I'm happy with the way we are going."
On Monday, the Clovers shot a 187 at the Landing and then turned around and carded a 175 as a team Thursday. They even had two shooters, Chris Arnold and Keith Hathorn, vying for the medalist honors with a pair of 41s until Crimmins turned in his 38.
"Mike Wellington didn't have his best round of the season and I'm sure he's disappointed with that, but you go out and do your best and you battle," Wokoun said.
Wellington carded a 45 for the day, but he, Arnold and Hathorn all made the all-county squad this year.
Even though the weather was rough in the beginning of the day and there were some spots on the course that were a little hazardous, Wokoun still thinks the meet went the way it should have.
"I think the match played out they way it should have even with the weather we had. Luke Crimmins is a very good player and he deserves to be the county champion," Wokoun said. "And I do feel like we should have done better playing on our home course, but compared to how we shot on Monday, I say we shot much better."
North Putnam turned in the highest score of the day, posting a 213, but Nathan Martindale, the Cougars head coach, didn't look at that way.
"We had a few guys that posted a little better numbers today, so we are improving," Martindale said. "Experience wise we are hurting a little bit because we are a young team and we haven't gotten that many matches and practices in."
Outside of posting the highest score of the day, the Cougars failed to have anyone of the all-county squad this year, but that wasn't a goal for the day.
"We came out today wanting to compete and post our best team score of the season and that is what we did," Martindale said.
South Putnam finished the match with a 201, a score the head coach Brian McClure wasn't happy about.
"We didn't play well and the course was in great shape so that wasn't problem," McClure said. "We just look scared and intimidated out there."
Dylan Gilbert posted the Eagles' lowest score of the day, a 46, and was the only member from the team that made the all-county squad. The rest of the team shot in the 50s.
"We're a young team and we're not used to this kind of pressure of being in a big meet. We just didn't look relaxed out there," McClure said.
All four teams will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Deer Creek for the West Central Conference golf match at 11 a.m.
At Clover Meadows
Putnam County Golf Match
Team Scores -- Greencastle 170, Cloverdale 175, South Putnam 201, North Putnam 213
Medalist -- Crimmins 38
Cloverdale -- † Arnold 41, † Wellington 45, † Hathorn 41, Williams 48, Jordan 52
Greencastle -- † Crimmins 38, † Huber 41, † Wheeler 46, † Haussin 45, † Stinson 46
North Putnam -- Volland 54, Detiene 56, Smith 52, Marlow 51, Snyder 63
South Putnam -- † Gilbert 46, Eickhoff 55, Nichols 54, Kelly 50, Varvel 51
Next Match -- All four teams will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Deer Creek for the West Central Conference golf match at 11 a.m.
† -- Denotes All-County selection