Returning members of the Rochelle Hub varsity golf team used course knowledge to their advantage on Thursday, when the purple and white landed two players near the top of the leaderboard enroute to a runner-up finish in the L-P Invitational at Senica’s Oak Ridge.
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LASALLE — Returning members of the Rochelle Hub varsity golf team used course knowledge to their advantage on Thursday, when the purple and white landed two players near the top of the leaderboard enroute to a runner-up finish in the L-P Invitational at Senica’s Oak Ridge.
Junior Ian Metzger took second individually with a 3-over-par 75 and sophomore Alex Dyer finished fourth with a 79 as the Hubs placed second out of 10 teams with a final score of 340. Both Metzger and Dyer earned medals for the Hubs (4-1, 1-0 Interstate 8) who slashed 18 strokes off of their team score from the Rocket Invitational at Deer Valley last weekend.
“Our returning players had some course knowledge and they all improved on their scores from last year,” head coach Glen Mehrings said. “Our kids are committed to playing better and having top-5 finishes from Ian and Alex certainly helped us… Ian played solid golf all day and Alex was over par early in his round, but he chipped in for birdie and was even par over his next 10 holes… Our kids persevered through all 18 holes and they had a lot of positive holes.”
Sophomore Owen Carmichael turned in a 92 with 43 on the front nine. Sophomore Johnny Chadwick fired a 94 with 45 on the front nine, while sophomore Connor Lewis followed with a 101 including 47 on the front nine. Senior Chris Hickey recorded 111 for the Hubs, who had to navigate through large, fast greens as well as hot and humid weather conditions on Thursday.
“Sometimes it’s easy to give up on a round and we saw that with some players from other teams, but our kids didn’t give up,” Mehrings said. “The greens were a little bigger and faster than our home greens, so we had to make some putting adjustments and we talked to our kids about using different kinds of chips around the greens. It’s good that our kids are playing tougher courses, especially around the greens, because it will help all of our kids later on.”
Rochelle will resume its conference schedule on Tuesday afternoon, when the Hubs face the Morris Redskins at The Creek. While Rochelle is only two weeks into its new season, the team has already made significant strides. In addition to cutting 18 strokes off of their season-low score for 18 holes, the Hubs have removed 13 strokes from their low score for nine holes, shooting 164 in their win over Mendota and Amboy after opening the season with 177 at Park Hills on Aug. 20.
"We have young guys, but they all recognize that they have some deficiencies in their game," Mehrings said. "It's great to see that we have young guys with competitive attitudes. We have five young players who collectively want to get better and when we have one or two guys leading the way, the others follow and they don't want to be left behind. When the kids succeed, they become more motivated to win and become better players."
