EDWARDSVILLE – Ian Bailey shot a three-over par 75, while Zach Trimpe, Hayden Moore and Parker Griffiths each shot a 76 to help Edwardsville’s boys’ golf team win the Southwestern Conference tournament title Tuesday at Sunset Hills Country Club in Edwardsville.
The Tigers, as a team, shot a 304 on the tournament’s second day, combining with a 311 on the first day, held Aug. 27 at Stonewolf Golf Course in Fairview Heights, for a combined 615. O’Fallon was the runner-up with 628, followed by Belleville East, who shot 696. Collinsville finished fourth with a 725, Belleville West was fifth, coming in at 758, and Alton was last with an 803.
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Logan Lowery of O’Fallon was the individual champion, carding a two-day score of 148, four strokes ahead of Griffiths, who shot a 152 for the tournament. Moore finished third with a total of 153, the Panthers’ Caden Cannon finished fourth with a 156, beating out the Tigers’ Blake Burris, who also shot 156, on a tiebreak. Trimpe finished sixth with a 158, Trevor Laub of Edwardsville was seventh, also carding 158, with Trimpe winning the tiebreak, and Taylor Patterson of O’Fallon was eighth with a 161.
Before the final scores were posted, Tigers’ coach Adam Tyler felt very optimistic of his team’s chances.
“It’s not quite done, but I think we played pretty well,” Tyler said. “Again, the scores aren’t in yet, so I don’t 100 percent know, but it looks like we could hold off to shoot somewhere in the ballpark, like, 305, which is a really good score out here on a tough course.”
A total of six of the eight Tigers’ players shot below 80, with Burris shooting a 77 on the day and Laub carding a 78 to help the Tigers’ cause.
“We had three kids that I know of for certain that shot 76,” Tyler said. “I know Hayden Moore shot 76 today, I also know that Zach Trimpe shot 76, and Parker Griffiths shot 76 today, And then after that, Ian Bailey is actually still out on the course; he should be getting done. He could be our low guy today, so if he comes in under 76, that would be, again, four scores at 76 or better, and that’s really competitive out here.”
The format was unusual, in that the tournament was spread out over two days almost a month apart, almost making the event like two separate tournaments. Tyler felt that his team played the course, and it helped the Tigers tremendously.
“So we’re carrying a 10-shot lead over today,” Tyler said, “and again, I think the kids did what they should have done, go out, play the course and let the chips fall where they may. I think we did a very good job of not thinking about the first tournament, or the first part of this conference tournament, but actually, of doing a good job of just focusing on today, just playing the course that’s in front of them, and really, I know they wanted to win today. It's one thing to go out and have a lead to carry over, and then have O’Fallon or have another couple of teams, like Belleville East or Collinsville beat you today, and I know that they didn’t want that to happen. They wanted to come out today, and almost treat this like a totally separate tournament.”
Meanwhile, it was the first time that many of the Redbird players had ever played on the notoriously tough Sunset Hills course, and Alton had trouble with it right from the start.
“The course won today,” said Redbirds coach Zach Deeder. “This course is incredibly difficult, it was in perfect condition. And it was just a lot to ask, a lot of long shots, a lot of elevation changes, it got the better of us. We had penalty strokes galore, and I think some of the pressure got to us because this course is intimidating. And I think that got to us just a little bit. None of us has ever played here before, so there was a lot of kind of finding our way around. But, yeah, the course won today.”
The Redbirds kept plugging away and kept going, even under the difficult circumstances, which pleased Deeder very much.
“My guys kept fighting, they never really quit,” Deeder said. “But it was tough to keep your head up coming off a quad or a quintuple bogey.
“We’re proud of that; that’s what we hope for every time,” Deeder also said, “is that we just keep moving on, no matter how bad it gets. But this was a test. This was a test of patience and frustration training, just dealing with everything going wrong at the same time, then going on to the next hole and starting over. So hopefully, we learned a little bit of that, and we’re ready for regionals on Tuesday.”
The Redbirds’ top three players on the day were Dylan Lihue, who came in with a 94, Tyler Hazelwood, who shot 96, and Clayton Pilger, who shot 99. Lihue led the way for Alton with a two-day total of 191, Pilger with 198 and Aiden Keshner with a 207.
Lowery was the low man for the O’Fallon on the day with a 73, while Patterson and Ethan Ourada were next with 74 each. For the tournament, Lowery led the way, followed by Cannon and Patterson. Alex Agne lead Belleville East with an 80 for the day, followed by Hoghan Messinger, who shot 84, and Dillon Donjon and Zach Gebhardt each shot 86. Messinger led the Lancers for the tournament with a 170, followed by Donjon with 173 and Agne with 174.
Noah Scrum was the low scorer on the day for Collinsville with an 82, followed by Greg Witte, who shot 85, and Nate Lee, who carded an 89. For the championships, Witte and Scrum shared the honors for the Kahoks with 173 each, followed by Lee, who shot 183. The leader for Belleville West on the day was Dylan Fox with a 90, while two players – Tommy Dibadj and Colin Shea – each shot a 93. For the tournament, Shea led the Maroons with 189, Fox a stroke behind at 190, and Dibadj was next at 199.
All the conference teams now look ahead to the IHSA Class 3A regional next Tuesday at Tamarack Country Club in O’Fallon. Tyler will take the simple approach for his team as the postseason gets ready to start.
“You know, I think it’s one of those situations that we will always just play the course and try to have fun wherever we play; that’s all we’re really going to do,” Tyler said. “I know it’s kind of a boring answer,” he said with a smile, “but that’s what really what I have them do, is just play the course, and take it one day at a time. I think we are somewhat deep. That was shown today, that we have four scores or seven scores that could be at 78 or better. So we do have depth, but so do a lot of teams, and a lot of teams we’re going to face for the rest of the year. Now it’s that time of the year, you’re going to see the best teams in the state. So it’s how we play on that given day, and there’s going to be a little bit of luck that’s involved as well.”
Tamarack is a very familiar course to the Redbirds, and that should help Alton’s chances immensely.
“Regionals on Tuesday is a very familiar course in O’Fallon, and I expect much better things,” Deeder said, “because we’ve all played there quite a bit there quite a bit this year. But we’ll see then. Hopefully, we make a comeback there and get a lot of guys into sectionals.”
Deeder thinks any player on his team can advance to the sectionals, which is set for Oct, 8 at Sunset Hills.
“You know, really, anyone can get to (sectionals) on our squad right now,” Deeder said. “I would bet money on Hazelwood, Keshner, Lihue, and even Pilger for sure, but any one of my guys can shoot in the 80s this year. So it’s kind of hard to tell who’s going to be the hot one. I would guess we get three guys we’ll get three guys through sectionals at least.
“We got through today, we beat the rain, and we’re happy with that,” Deeder also said. “And like I said, we learned a lot about frustration and patience today.”
The State finals are set for Oct. 12-13 at The Den at Fox Greek Golf Course in Bloomington.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
