Fifth card gives Marmion win over Montini
The Marmion and Montini boys golf match on Monday afternoon had all the earmarks of a classic after-school showdown.
There were holed bunker shots and hybrids to within 10 feet for eagle.
Alex Keefe was 2-under par for the host Broncos when he played the final hole.
In the end, though, it was as if the two schools played without anything at stake after Marmion captured the dual meet on a fifth scorecard after the two schools were deadlocked at 158-158 after the four counting scores were tallied.
The Suburban Christian Conference golf duals are essentially exhibition matches because the league champion is determined solely on the basis of the two-day tournament at the end of the regular season.
“When you think about it, (the win) doesn’t mean anything,” said Marmion senior Joe Fritz, the Naperville resident who anchored the Cadets’ total with his 2-over 37 at Willow Crest Golf Club in Oak Brook.
Fritz and Luke Hoss would have had a match-play hole for the ages had they played the second hole, a par 5, as combatants.
Hoss, the Cadets’ second-ranked player, was lying in a greenside bunker, while Fritz was on the dance floor 10 feet for eagle after a scintillating hybrid from 260 yards.
“I actually had a good lie in the rough,” Fritz said. “It was a perfect shot. I just didn’t make the putt.”
Hoss, playing the shot before, holed out for birdie from 60-plus feet for his matching birdie.
“It was very disappointed because I left my (tee) shot in the (fairway) bunker,” said Hoss, who finished with a 39 for Marmion. “(Fritz) told me, ‘You can still get up and down.’ I had a fluffy lie. Sure enough, I hit it, and it just went in.”
The Broncos’ No. 1 player, senior southpaw Ryan Mullins, had bookend double bogeys.
But Mullins’ play was markedly different over the middle holes as he fashioned six straight pars to fire a respectable 40.
Alex Keefe then essentially tied the match after converting birdies at Nos. 3, 4 and 6 to move to 2-under on the day.
But the junior found a water hazard fronting the ninth hole, ultimately settling for a level-par 35.
It was his third medalist performance of the fall.
“My driver was working pretty well,” the Wheaton resident said. “I was striking my irons close. I was making some putts here and there.”
The Cadets’ total was complete when Ricky Angsten and JR Fredstrom fired respective nines of 40 and 42.
Montini tied the match when Eddie Fitzgerald and Jack Pastuovic came home with a 41 and 42.
Marmion sophomore Jackson Clark turned in the tiebreaker with a 43.
“I’m on a fact-finding mission,” Marmion coach Doug Roberts said. “(I was) trying to see who warrants playing in upcoming tournaments and the (Aurora) City Championship.”