As Center Grove boys golf coach Matt Rodman noted, springtime in Indiana exposes players to just about every type of weather imaginable — from snow to 90-degree heat, from light breezes to howling winds and torrential downpours.
Monday’s sectional at The Legends offered a little bit of everything, thanks to an afternoon storm cell that first broke up a relatively calm morning by amping up the wind, then dumped rain on the last few threesomes as they finished up their rounds.
Through it all, Rodman’s Trojans held steady to claim their ninth consecutive sectional crown with a total score of 310.
“I hope they realize how well that they played today,” Rodman said. “Because we actually put up a better score on the front nine than we did last Thursday (at the county tournament), and then the winds started howling. By the time Luke Beetz was on hole 7 or 8, the conditions started to go downhill pretty quickly.”
That meant strong winds on the back nine for most of the final groups, which included players from Center Grove, Greenwood and Greenwood Christian.
Drew Rowen, playing in the No. 2 position for the Trojans, was 3 under par through 16 holes before the rain began; despite finishing with a bogey on 17 and a double bogey on 18, he came in with the low round of the day with an even-par 72.
“It was playing really hard today,” Rowen said. “We were playing 20-25 mile an hour winds at times, and with the rain and the monsoon coming in the last few holes, it definitely made it a little tougher. The course was playing hard, but I played good overall.”
Luke Beetz carded a 78 for Center Grove, followed closely by Drew Hardin (79), James Beetz (81) and Brady Schier (82).
Host Franklin continued its recent string of solid play, following up a Mid-State Conference championship last week with a second-place showing Monday. The Grizzly Cubs finished at 320, just 10 shots back of the Trojans.
Reid Davidson led the way for Franklin with a 76, while Kadin Gibson finished at 80 and both Luke Bechert and Jake Lock posted rounds of 82.
“I’m not sure I saw everything unfolding the way it did the last part of the season,” said Franklin co-coach Ted Bishop, who began the spring with four new players in the varsity lineup. “The beauty of this team is … every player has gone through some kind of slump at some point in the season, and the other four guys have picked him up.
“And that’s exactly what happened today. (Will) McGuinness is going to be our MVP; he’s got the low average on the team. But he had a rough day today, and obviously everybody else came through and played.”
The battle for the third and final regional team berth came down to a tiebreaker. Both Greenwood and GCA finished with team totals of 335; the Cougars, who earned their first regional appearance last spring, pulled out another by virtue of having the lower fifth score.
Nolan Reed paced GCA with an 81; Ian Reed and Coen Bauschek each contributed an 82.
“I’m very proud of them for hanging in there,” Cougars coach Gary Hamilton said. “Like last year, the last four or five holes, we dug down and somehow gutted it out. We knew where we stood when we were on the 18th tee with our last two kids (Ian Reed and Sutton Piercefield), and both of them made pars on the last two holes to get us into a situation where we could advance.”
The Woodmen will still be represented at the regional by Jackson Watkins, who secured the final individual qualifying spot with a 76. Greenwood also got an 84 from Eli Poe and an 85 from Conner Chase.
Also moving on to play Thursday are Indian Creek’s Braxton Christie and Whiteland’s Will Davis. Both shot 75 on Monday, the lowest rounds of the day outside of Rowen’s.
Roncalli, led by Nathan Fikes’ 81, totaled 341 to finish sixth in the team standings. Whiteland (346), which also got an 85 from Dylan Gross, was seventh and Indian Creek (361) eighth. Edinburgh finished 12th with a 420.
Next up for the local survivors is the Providence Regional at Champions Pointe, where Center Grove will be looking to extend its state-record streak of consecutive championships to seven — or, failing that, at least giving itself a chance to defend its state title next week.
“The pressure’s just on advancing, just finishing in the top three,” Rodman said. “We’re not even going to talk about going out there and making the goal be that we have to win it. Is our goal going to be to win it? Sure. That’s our goal every time we step out on the course. But our goal is just to survive and advance — and then once you get to the state finals, as we saw last year, anything can happen.”
