Sept. 25 was the Minooka boys JV golf team’s biggest tournament of the season, also being the last tournament of the season.
Minooka played in their South Prairie Conference (SPC) tournament, which included 76 golfers and 11 teams. The event was held at Blackberry Oaks in Oswego.
Unfortunately, the tournament didn’t go exactly how Minooka would have it. The Indians took fifth out of 11 teams. The top four scores for Minooka were freshman Delso Studer with a 86 taking ninth place, freshman Josh Costa with a 87 taking 10th place, freshman Ethan Lehmann with a 92 taking 20th place, and sophomore Colton Fransisco with a 93 taking 21st place.
“I could have done better, but I am not mad with how I played at conference,” said Lehmann.
Lehmann had a tough start to the round, starting off 8 over through three holes. Lehmann then bounced back and went 2 over through the next four holes.
“I had a couple pars in a row, so then I started to feel better about my score,” Lehmann said.
Costa had a strong performance at the conference tournament this year.
“My strengths were my chip shots because they were very consistent,” Costa said.
Coach Brian Petrovic felt Minooka is a better team then what they showed at the tournament.
“We only lost one conference dual meet this entire season, so I’m not sure our fifth place finish on one single day is an accurate representation of where we really were as a team for the full season. We picked a horrible day to play some of our worst golf of the season, but that is life and sometimes things don’t go the way we want them to,” Petrovic said.
Minooka went into the tournament 8-1-1 hoping to get a team conference win. None of those matches were an 18-hole event, which did not prepare Minooka great for the conference tournament.
“As a JV team we don’t really get to play in many 18-hole events for the season and the conference tournament is one of our only 18-hole events. I think it would be beneficial for us to play in more 18-hole events so that players are more accustomed to the rigors and course management strategies that normally come along with a full 18-hole event,” Petrovic said
Overall as Minooka played in their last tournament season they had a very solid season with lots of positives to come out of it.
“At the end of the day the main goal of JV golf is to get our young players ready to play at the next level (varsity golf),” Petrovic said. “I feel like our players learned quite a bit this season about the rules of golf and strategic course management strategies that could be used during their rounds of golf.”
Delso Studer is a member of the JV boys golf team.
