Center Grove’s Brody Holubar follows the flight of his shot during Monday’s sectional at The Legends.
Zayne Spangler | For the Daily Journal
The course was the same, but the circumstances and Brody Holubar’s performance proved far, far different.
Four days removed from shooting an uncharacteristic 82 at the Johnson County tournament, the Center Grove junior bounced back strong on Monday to lead the Trojans to the Franklin Sectional championship at The Legends.
Holubar and teammate James Beetz both carded 72s, but the former picked up medalist honors after winning a playoff on the first hole.
“Today, I just feel like … obviously, the goal is to come out and shoot your best score,” Holubar said. “I just made a lot of pars throughout the day. Now it’s the postseason, and the next round matters, and if you don’t play good you cannot go on.
“You’ve got to come out and be good for your team. The (82) is still in the back of your head, especially on the first tee. Overall, you just have to trust yourself. You put in the work to be in this spot.”
Holubar was also the sectional medalist last spring with a 66.
Center Grove’s team score of 291 moves them to the Providence Regional on Thursday morning at Champions Pointe in Henryville. Joining them will be runner-up Franklin (302) and third-place Roncalli (316). It marks the 26th sectional title and 11th in a row for the Trojans.
The Grizzly Cubs, too, played much better after carding a 321 at county to finish third behind Center Grove and Greenwood. Kadin Gibson and Jack Lock each shot 74 to lead Franklin. Junior Reid Davidson and Matthew Ferguson came through with 77s, while Luke Bechert had an 83.
“I’m really happy with the way we battled today,” Gibson said. “I’m sure it wasn’t everyone’s best day, but we all just kind of scraped it around and put together a good score.
“We just wanted to improve. We made some mistakes during county that we knew we couldn’t make today if we wanted to move on. I feel like I played solid. There are a lot of bad shots out there, but several really good ones that helped me rebound from bad shots.”
Aside from the 72s of Holubar and Beetz, the Trojans received a 73 from Drew Hardin, and 74s courtesy of both Nathan Springer and Noah Parsetich.
Five players separated by two strokes.
“We just wanted to shoot some good scores. Obviously, the goal is always to win, and just switch our focus to regional on Thursday,” Hardin said. “After regionals two years ago when we didn’t make it out, nothing is really guaranteed.
“At sectional, we still have to play our best.”
Greenwood finished sixth as a team with a total of 326. Greenwood Christian (344) was ninth, followed by Indian Creek (358) in 10th, Whiteland (359) 11th and Edinburgh (375) 12th.
GCA junior Noah Reed extended his season by at least a few days, shooting a 74 to qualify for regional as an individual. It’s the second straight regional appearance for Reed, who made it out of sectional as a sophomore with a 72.
Though unable to advance, Greenwood freshman Kaden Rowland capped his first varsity season with a 77 at the 13-team sectional. Woodmen teammates Davis Arthur and Braden Chase finished with an 81 and 82, respectively.
Another freshman, GCA’s Finn Satre, shot 83. Pacing the other Johnson County squads were Will Smith of Whiteland with an 82, Brent Burton of Edinburgh with an 86 and Indian Creek’s Hayden Westerfeld with an 87.
