Watson, White pace Carmel's effort
Staying steady and hitting greens in regulation was a big part of the plan for Jack Watson as he lead the Carmel Catholic boys golf team through regional action on Tuesday.
Watson hit 16 greens in regulation and fired a 4 over-par 76 on the par-72, 6,833-yard Bittersweet Golf Course in Gurnee.
"I thought this course played a lot harder," said Watson, a junior who shot 37 on the front and 39 on the back for a third-place tie with Deerfield's Bennett Lavin. "If you play it right, it can be an easy course. I just came in thinking to make pars and wanted to help the team out a bit so we can try to make it downstate as a team."
Billy White also carded a 78 for the Corsairs and lifted them as one of three teams to advance from this regional.
Lake Forest finished first with 318, Highland Park was second at 325 and Carmel took third at 328. All three advance to the Barrington sectional to be held at Makray Memorial on Monday.
Other individuals moving on include Brett Coburn (Libertyville, 79), Tory Weidenmiller (Stevenson, 81), Landon Kowalski (Stevenson, 81), Kurt Kapfer (Libertyville), and Eric Nelson (Mundelein) at 81 and Ben Schroeder (Mundelein) and Zack Kim (Warren) at 82.
Highland Park freshman Jonathan Gerrard was the top medalist. He shot 74 and won a one-hole playoff over Perry Johnson of Lake Forest.
The Corsairs' other scores were from Brad Smith 86, Alex Pabich 88, John Krzmarzick 91 and Mitch Meyer 97.
Carmel missed reaching the sectional a year ago, but had five golfers advance as individuals.
"I'm just happy to see us get out," Carmel coach Jim Nolan said. "Bittersweet (golf course) is a great equalizer. Pine Meadow (home course) is a tough track and we're so happy to play there. Everybody has to play differently here, because the course is much tighter. Every green is a killer green and the wind picked up right away. It's not surprising to see the scores so high."
This year turned into a battle for Carmel, because Mundelein (329) was a shot back and Libertyville was 4 off the mark.
Scores from Mundelein consisted of Nelson's 81, Schroeder's 82, Pat McGrath (83), Jon Hendricks (83), Andrew Adamsick (85) and Sean Forsythe (88).
"We've got six kids wondering how they could make up one shot," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said. "Being 1 stroke away is tough with three seniors who've put a lot of time in. We were able to advance last year as team. It would've been nice to advance this year. But that's golf, and it wasn't meant to be."
Coburn, a senior, dealt with the conditions and the course well. He shot 38 on the front side and 41 on the back.
"With the wind I didn't know what to expect," Coburn said. "I knew being in the 70s, I would get out.
"At times it was up to a two-club wind. This is different than our course (Village Green). There you can hit driver, but here I think I used the driver just once. I normally like to hit driver and whale on it all day. With the wind the way it was and the course, I had to hit 3-wood, hybrids and a couple of irons off the tee. It gave me a better lie in the fairways."
In addition to Coburn , Libertyville got scores from Kapfer (81), Josh Ok (84), Marshall Rolston (88), Rocky Hudson (91) and Dave Locke (95).