Greencastle golfers open with wins over North Putnam, Northview Invite

For not having much time on the course, Greencastle got the 2024 boys’ golf season off to a flying start, defeating North Putnam in the season-opening match at Tiger Pointe GC Friday night before turning around and winning the Northview Invitational Saturday afternoon at Forest Park GC.

Bryson Worman took medalist honors on Friday with a round of 39, followed by Ben Zellers on 41 with Jackson Rodgers and Dylan Barcus rounding out the round of 164 with dueling 72s. Sam White shot 44, Zane Huber carded a 45, Cooper Grable came in on 55 and Casey Hatfield shot 60 to round out the Greencastle scores.

“Our goal as a team is to shoot below 165 and we are happy that we accomplished that in our first match,” Greencastle head coach Rob Worman said. “This team is dedicated to the sport and we will continue to improve and I look forward to a great season.”

“(Tiger Pointe) was a course that played long but at least we got to play,” North Putnam head coach Earl Hall said. “It’s a tough course to start the season on, especially in a week with no practice due to weather.

“Our boys played fairly well considering five players were playing their first high school golf match and seeing Tiger Pointe CC for the first time. Greencastle has a nice team filled with a nice variety of experience and their scores showed that to be true.

“Our next match comes Tuesday and because of the eclipse, we will still have no chance to practice,” Hall added. “Nonetheless, we will play the ball where it lies and give it our best shot.”

The following afternoon, Greencastle shot 306 to win the Northview Invitational, beating the host Knights by 11 strokes with Terre Haute South shooting 319 and Cloverdale coming in on 324 to finish fourth.

Shakamak shot 331 to beat out Terre Haute North (333) for fifth, followed by West Vigo (353), Parke Heritage (359), South Vermillion (360), Edgewood (365), Cascade (388), Sullivan (402) and Clay City (451).

Clover Zach Thomas held off Zellers for medalist honors with an even-par 71, the latter shooting 72, with Cloverdale’s Eli Kelley tying for third on 73 and Worman shooting 74.

Rodgers followed in with 79 for Greencastle while White shot 82 to round out the team scoring and Barcus came in on 85.

Houston Jobe shot 89 and Carson Caulkins added a 91 to round out the Clover scoring on the round. Desmond Alexander finished the day with 111 for Cloverdale. “I am really proud of the team for playing so well,” Worman said. “The weather didn’t allow us to practice on the course most of the week so to come out and post such low scores and take the win is impressive.”