Center Grove’s Noah Parsetich hits out of a bunker on hole No. 15 during Wednesday’s round of the state finals at Prairie View.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
CARMEL
In the recent past, Center Grove has usually been a part of the final grouping at the state finals, coming up the 18th fairway with a chance to win it all.
The Trojans found themselves in unfamiliar territory on Wednesday afternoon, finishing on the front nine and ending the last round of the season well out of contention.
That outcome, though, beats not making it at all — which was the case a year ago. Back at Prairie View after a one-year absence, Center Grove finished the two-day tourney with a team score of 629, tied with Tipton for 10th place.
While the result could be viewed as a disappointment relative to the Trojans’ always-lofty expectations, coach Matt Rodman and his crew opted to put more of a positive spin on things.
“I’m proud of how they played a little bit better today,” Rodman said. “We started off a little rough on the back nine, but we kind of composed ourselves … our front nine scores were quite a bit better.”
The Trojans played the front side at 8 over par on Wednesday after shooting +20 on the back.
Freshman Nathan Springer was Center Grove’s top individual finisher for the tournament, tying for 18th in the field with a 73-77—150.
Springer stumbled out of the gate Wednesday with a double bogey on the 10th hole and a bogey on No. 11, but he stopped the bleeding from there and collected nine consecutive pars before another double bogey on the par-5 third hole. His bogey on No. 5 was canceled out by a birdie on the seventh.
“After my first day I’m like, ‘It’s going to be hard to go out here again and shoot another good score,’” Springer said, “and I salvaged a solid 77, which isn’t terrible.”
Brody Holubar tied for 43rd, bouncing back nicely from a first-round 82 to lead the Trojans’ Wednesday charge with a 75.
The sophomore was up and down at the start of his final round, with two birdies and two bogeys over the first four holes, and he triple-bogeyed the par-3 15th before coming back with a birdie 3 on No. 17 to make the turn at 38. On the front side, Holubar sandwiched a birdie on the seventh between a pair of bogeys.
“It was a good bounce-back from yesterday,” Holubar said. “Only one hole with a big score … other than that, I played 17 good holes of golf and felt a lot better than yesterday.”
The Trojans’ lone upperclassman, senior Brady Schier, closed his career with a 85-82—167, tied for 77th on the individual leaderboard. Schier began the day with double bogeys on holes 10 and 13, but he settled down on the front side, playing holes 1-8 at +1 before closing with a double bogey on the ninth.
James Beetz tied for 73rd at 82-82—164. Three double bogeys tainted the first nine Wednesday for Beetz, who made the turn with an 8-over-par 44. The sophomore reined it in on the front side of the course, coming home with seven pars and two bogeys.
Sophomore Noah Parsetich, who turned in a first-round 76 out of the No. 5 spot, had a rougher time on Wednesday. He was +9 on his first seven holes and never got back on track, finishing with a 14-over-par 86. Though his Wednesday score didn’t count toward the team total, Parsetich still tied for 64th overall at 162.
Guerin Catholic won its second straight team championship, outdueling Westfield down the stretch to win by a narrow two-stroke margin (589-591). Golden Eagle junior Leo Wessel was the individual champion (71-67—138).
This was the first state finals appearance for all five players in the Trojans’ lineup, and that inexperience can be a major hindrance on a challenging course like Prairie View.
“We’ve got to come up here more often,” Holubar said. “You can really tell when Westfield’s taking the tee, they’re confident and they know where they’re hitting it. It makes a big difference here.”
“It’s hard to simulate a course like this at home,” Rodman said. “We play Hickory Stick on a regular basis, and it’s a good test — but it’s got no trees. … Every year in the past, on bus rides we’ve been able to rely on somebody to say, ‘This is how it is; this is what it’s like. This is what’s going to happen.’ And we didn’t have that this year.”
The good news is that in the coming years, they will. Rodman is hopeful that the experience gained this week will pay big dividends for Center Grove over the next couple of seasons.
“We’ve got three sophomores and a freshman that just got a good two days’ worth of state under their belt,” he said. “I’m sure they’re already licking their chops to try and make a run again next year.”
Indeed, the returning players have big plans for the future.
“After yesterday, the goal was to get back to the top five, tie third, whatever,” Holubar said. “Obviously, it didn’t happen, but this is a good year for us for experience. We lose just one, and we’ve got a bunch of guys competing for that fifth spot; it should be a fun year next year.”
“We’re going to be a good team the next three years,” Springer added. “I think we’re going to be a top-three team every year.”
