MADISON – Beautiful weather and a difficult course greeted Madison County’s boys golf teams Thursday afternoon as Marquette and Edwardsville took home the team titles in the Madison County Boys Golf Championship at Gateway National Golf Links, located next door to Gateway Motorsports Park.
Michael Holtz of Marquette came away as the day’s individual medalist, firing an even-par 71 on the par-71, 6,623-yard layout, while Benson Tyrek of Edwardsville was the large-school medalist with a 4-over 75.
The Tigers shot a team 312 to win the large-school division, with Collinsville following with a 333, Triad taking third with 361, Granite City fourth at 366 and Alton fifth at 378. The Explorers’ team score of 308 was enough to win the small-school division, with Civic Memorial shooting 347, Highland 370 and Metro East Lutheran 449. Father McGivney of Maryville, Roxana and East Alton-Wood River each had players competing as individuals. The top four scores for each team were counted towards the team total.
“It was a good day for some golf and it was nice to see our kids playing well,” said Explorer coach Pat Moore. “We’ve got no seniors on the team this year and it shows how dedicated our kids are. It’s really fun to watch them play and I’m excited to see just how good of players they can become.”
Gateway National’s layout has the reputation of being one of the more difficult courses in the St. Louis area and Moore thought it played up to its reputation. “The course played pretty tough today,” Moore said.
While not unhappy with his team’s finish, Edwardsville coach Dene Schickendanze though his Tigers could have played a bit better. “We’re pleased with the finish, but I think we could have played a bit better,” Schickendanze said. “This was our first tournament of the year though (the Tigers, like several other teams in the field, were going to be in Tuesday’s Redbird Teeoff Classic in Alton but severe storms that swept into the area just when the tournament was getting under way forced the event to be called off), but we will improve as the season goes on.
“We had a good course to play on; it was a bit windy at the start but once it calmed down, the scoring conditions were much better.”
The Redbirds took their results in stride. “We’ve got a young team,” Redbird coach Zack Deeder said. “We have a lot of potential on our team and we played a lot better than I though we would. Our home course (Spencer T. Olin) Is pretty tough, but this course is much tougher and we played well.
“Our next tournament is Saturday in Quincy and we’re really excited about it.”
Knight coach Josh McDonald conceded his team had a tough day but said “I’m proud of the kids; they kept going at it and grinded it out. This is a pretty tough course and yet I saw a lot of improvement from them today.
“The main thing we need to work on right now is our confidence, letting the one bad hole go and and keep working and playing. Putting was a big issue for us today and we’ll work on that in our next practice.”
The top individuals from schools not in the team competition were D.J. William of McGivney, who shot 98; Zach Carlise of Roxana, who shot 86; and Drew Sobol of East Alton-Wood River, who shot 75. Other low golfers for each team included Cody Daech of Collinsville (80), Jordan Brown of Metro East Lutheran (93), Max Hunter of Alton (89), David Keel of Granite City (91), Alec Hilliard of Civic Memorial (78), Chris Lambert of Triad (85) and Brode Correll of Highland (87).
