Tiger Cubs place second at Mustang Invite

Monday, April 20, 2009
GHS freshman Brad Haussin (shown here at Windy Hill) fired an 80 in Saturday's Mustang Invitational.

The Greencastle boys golf team blasted their way to a second place finish at the Mustang Invitational Saturday. GHS's score of 324 was second only to Edgewood's 307.

"We're pleased to come away with a second place finish, and I felt like we improved on our up-and-down greenside game for the most part," Greencastle head coach Donovan Wheeler said. "That's been basically the only thing we've worked on this week in practice. Although the score doesn't completely reflect it, we have made some strides there."

Luke Crimmins led the Tiger Cub charge with 78, followed closely by Brad Haussin with 80 and Jimmy Wheeler with an 82. Senior Wade Huber carded an 84 and Tyler Hopkins finished his efforts with a 90.

For all the stride his Tiger Cubs made on Saturday, Wheeler thought their course management was lacking. He mentioned that they knew the distances and knew the layout, but failed to play the controlled, disciplined game they needed to play.

"Going in, we knew all the yardages both off the tee and into the greens. I was sure they understood that this was not a driver-off-the-tee golf course," Wheeler explained. "But, when they got there and saw it with their own eyes they figured the course looked pretty easy and grabbed their bats. Next thing you know, they're scrambling from terrible lies off the fairway and punching out from under trees. That was my fault for not emphasizing that more stridently. It's a mistake I won't repeat. One of the reasons our back nine was better was because we started playing to the 150 markers and stopped swinging for the fences."

Wheeler acknowledged that the team shot a 304 and 300 at Martinsville in the past few years, which is a comparable course. He was pleased that even with a second place finish on the day, his golfers remain hungry and are not settling for the current state of their game.

Greencastle will travel to Speedway Tuesday at 5 p.m.

At Cascades Municipal Golf Course

Edgewood 307, Greencastle 324, Brownstown Central 328, Linton 338, Brown County 350, Mitchell 361, Clay City 380, Loogootee 401, Orleans 433

Medalist -- Bailey Howard (Brown County) 73†

Greencastle -- Crimmins 78, Haussin 80, Wheeler 82, Huber 84, Hopkins 90

† won in playoff

Next match -- Greencastle will travel to Speedway Tuesday at 5 p.m.