Pilgrim golfers take double NLC win

Junior Hudson Yoder lead all scorers with a stellar round of 35 (-1).  Hudson hit 8 of 9 greens, 5 of 7 fairways off the tee, with a smooth 16 putts.  Hudson’s ball striking and consistent putting showed off tonight.  The highlight of his round was back to back birdies on 15 & 16.  I was most impressed by Hudson’s ability to finish his round following the back to back birdies.  Knowing he was under par with three holes remaining Hudson was able to focus only on the next shot, parring his final three holes to seal the deal.

Earning his way back into the Varsity lineup by his recent play Junior Grant Clady started his round with a birdie on 10, followed by pars on 11 & 12.  After a drop shot on 13 moved him back to even par, Grant rebounded with par at 14.  At 15 he made his second birdie of the night to get to -1 with 3 holes remaining.  The pressure to finish caused drop shots at 16 & 17 however Grant rebounded again.  On 18 he placed a perfect tee shot followed by a routine approach and two putt par to finish with a career best 37!   This was Grant’s first ever round in the 30’s, quite a milestone!

Junior John Gerard bounced back quite well from last night’s debacle.  John’s fired a season best round 39.  3 pars to start, 3  bogeys in the middle, and 3 pars to close.  Most impressive for John was his ability to limit the damage to single drop shots and avoid the big number.

Senior Colin Caine just missed the 30’s on his card, he brought in a solid 40.  The highlight of Colin’s round was an excellent birdie on #12.   Micah Calhoun’s 44 was our 5th scoretonight.

The Varsity rebounded well from last evening’s lack luster performance shooting 24 strokes better tonight than last night!  Getting three guys in the 30’s is what it takes to beat good competition.  Per Elkhart Memorial a 151 on the back nine at Christiana Creek has never been recorded.  It’s not been since 2006 that a PHS team has gone as low as 151.

Like last night at Bent Oak, none of my players had seen or played tonight’s course.  Also like last night we’ve only played the back nine in the conference tournament, most recently 2014.

The JV is peaking at the end of their regular season with younger players taking a step forward.  Tonight Freshman Bryce Carmichael was medalist on the JV side with a 42.  Classmate Chapman Yoder continued his fine play with a 43.  Tonight’s team score was just a mere 4 shots off last night’s season low.  Picking up two NLC wins and finishing their season a perfect 7-0 in the NLC was a big positive!  Also a positive was scoring lower than one Varsity squad tonight.

Notes:

• JV season wraps up next week – Wednesday home vs St Joe – Thursday at CMA with Penn
• Tonight was the first time in my 10 year tenure defeating Warsaw in NLC play.
• 151 best 9 hole score in my tenure
• Varsity threw out the score from our #1 player – can’t recall last time – if ever that has happened
• Tuesday was the first time in my tenure the JV ever defeated the Varsity
• Saturday’s NLC tournament starts at 9am at McCormick Creek in Nappannee
• Varsity finishes NLC round robin play with 5-2 record – losses to Wawasee and Northridge – wins vs Warsaw, Elkhart Memorial, Concord, Goshen, and Northwood
• Our NLC tournament seeding – final RR matches take place Thursday for other schools – we’ll know more after those are decided
• Consecutive seasons we’ll play in the better of the two flights for NLC Tournament