FORSYTH, Ill. – Alton senior golfer Sam Ottwell is no stranger to the state tournament.
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And after shooting a 1-under-par 71 at Monday’s Decatur (MacArthur) Sectional, he will be headed back to the state tourney for a third straight season.
While the Redbirds didn’t qualify for Monday’s sectional as a team, Ottwell shot a 7-under-par 65 at the Collinsville Regional, matching the school record that he set earlier this year and qualifying him for the sectional as an individual.
Hickory Point Golf Club in the village of Forsyth, just North of Decatur, proved difficult for Monday’s golfers. Ottwell was one of only two scores under par.
The other came from Washington’s Gavin Schreurs who fired a 3-under-par 69. Ironically, Ottwell and Schreurs played their practice round together at last year’s state tournament. It’s a possibility that the two could be sent off in the same group this year.
“I’m just proud of him,” Ottwell’s coach Dylan Dudley said after the round.
“He just hangs in there. It’s like I told him out there, you could’ve been disappointed that you didn’t make some birdie putts, but at the same time, if you don’t make the par putts, playing in this sectional with this caliber of players, we could have been going home.”
Ottwell, with a second-place finish, was all smiles after the round.
“Not bad,” he said on the day. “I just wish I played a little better on the back. Going nine pars, and especially on those two par fives. But second place isn’t awful,” he said with a grin.
Alton qualified as a team for the O’Fallon Sectional back in 2022, Dudley’s first year as head coach. The Redbirds finished seventh out of 16 teams with a team score of 333.
That year, as a sophomore, Ottwell shot an even-par 72 to qualify for his first state tourney. He would finish 49th at state with an 80 in round one and an 82 in round two for a two-day score of 162.
In his junior year, he nearly missed the cut at the state tournament shooting a 6-over-par 78 on day one. He followed that up with a 2-under-par 70 on day two, for a two-day score of 148 which was good enough for fifth place.
Ottwell said that he doesn’t feel as much pressure when competing by himself, rather than with the team.
“I feel like there’s less pressure if anything,” he said. “Because whenever you play with a team, there’s more pressure because you want to do good for the team. But whenever I’m just playing by myself, I don’t feel as much pressure.”
Ottwell was the final tee time of the day, teeing off at 11:24 a.m. with O’Fallon’s Tyler Murray and Belleville West’s JoJo Jones. He admitted it was a strange feeling.
“A little bit. It was weird because we didn’t have anybody behind us. But we could play as slow as we wanted,” he joked.
It will be his final trip to The Den at Fox Creek as a high school golfer, but it’s a course that he knows like the back of his hand.
“Oh yeah. Big fan of The Den,” Ottwell said.
“He’ll handle it well,” Dudley added. “He’s got some time off, but he’ll go through his normal preparation, his normal routine when he gets up there, his mind will be right.”
“He’s a veteran. He knows how to handle the experience; he doesn’t get caught up. He knows he’s there to do a job, and I think we’ve got the right guy wearing red and black.”
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