Team Triplett tears it up in national qualifier
There was a time Matt Triplett couldn't carry his dad's golf bag.
Times have changed.
The 2005 St. Charles East graduate, with his father Tim serving as caddie, on June 21 won the United States Golf Association (USGA) Amateur Public Links qualifier at Oak Grove Golf Course in Harvard, setting up a trip to the national championship July 12-17 in Greensboro, N.C.
Long gone are the days when Triplett, now 23 and bearing a fresh bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University, chunked around with his dad at the St. Charles Park District's Pottawatomie course.
"Normally I'd play from his tee shots, or drop 100 yards in," said Matt Triplett, who started playing golf at age 4.
No need for the deep drop nowadays.
"I drive the ball pretty straight, pretty accurate off the tee," said Triplett, who in 2004 helped St. Charles East to a Class AA state runner-up finish. "That helps me get the ball in play, then I attack the pins. Other than that, another strength is I don't make a lot of big numbers, I make a lot of pars."
At Oak Grove on June 21 he finished consecutive 18-hole rounds in a 1-under 141 to lead fellow qualifiers Brian Colbert of Cary, Brian Atkinson of Chicago and Northern Illinois teammate Andrew Frame. Triplett's title made up for the 2009 qualifier.
"I actually got into a playoff for an alternate spot, but I hit my ball out of bounds on my first shot (in sudden death)," Triplett said. "This year I played really well and got a spot."
The winner of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship earns an exemption into the Masters. That's just too huge - "too far away" - for Triplett to consider. He'll stay grounded with the tasks ahead.
"Now, I really want to see how far I can advance in match play," he said. "Once you get to match play anything can happen.
"But really, I just want to take everything I can out of the experience, and learn everything I can so I can use it in future tournaments, and use it to help build up my confidence."
Triplett won't go into Greensboro cold. On July 6 he'll enter the Illinois State Amateur Championship Qualifier at Weibring Golf Course in Normal. After the Public Links Championships, Triplett will try his luck at the USGA Amateur Qualifier at Cantigny in Wheaton, where he's had success before.
As with most all his competitive rounds, his mother, Robin, will be in the gallery while his dad, Tim, will caddie. He not only does it for free, he also offers the right tools - combination swing doctor and amateur psychiatrist.
"He helps a lot, I guess, with the mental side of it, helps keep me calm and focused," Matt Triplett said. "Also, he's been watching me swing a golf club since I was really young.
"He's not a pro golf coach or anything like that, but he just knows my swing better than anybody else knows it, and he knows what works and what doesn't work for me."
A door closes, another opens: It was the end of an era for Geneva's Kevin Hilgart. And what a way to end it.
Playing his last soccer game with the Campton United Soccer Club, the Carthage-bound Hilgart scored on a last-second penalty kick in a 6-1 win June 28 at the U.S. Youth Soccer Region II Championship playoffs in Beaver Creek, Ohio.
Campton United Navy's win over the (South) Dakota Alliance Soccer Club was, alas, insufficient to move on to the Under-17 semifinals, ending this chapter on a bittersweet note for Hilgart.
"I've been with this team nine years now, and it was my last game with them. It was kind of strange," said Hilgart, Campton Navy's lone U17 player to move on to college. Joining the Tri-Cities club at the age of 8 along with Geneva teammate Brady Wahl, St. Charles East's Dylan Tucker and St. Charles North's Matt Rasmussen, they've enjoyed much success. Coach Mark MacKinnon's group tied for fourth nationally last year and, on June 14, won the Illinois Youth Soccer Cup after finishing second to the Chicago Fire Juniors three other times.
"When I first started out we were just OK, but when different coaches came in they taught us new things. We had the right coaching staff at the right time to take us to a different level," Hilgart said.
"We've all just grown up together, we know how each other play, we feel comfortable with each other and we have accomplished a lot together."
Both together and apart. Last fall, Hilgart, Wahl, Robbie Johnson and Seamus Kaminski defeated Campton teammates Tucker, Chris Tomek, Eric Russell and keeper Nate Esler in Geneva's regional final win over St. Charles East. With Geneva, Hilgart was Western Sun Conference MVP after scoring 15 goals with 8 assists.
Listed as a midfielder but with skills that translate forward or back, Hilgart said Carthage coach Steve Domin, of Naperville, watched him play at a sectional all-star game. Hilgart scored 5 goals and assisted on 2 others. Rising to Carthage's No. 1 recruit, Hilgart committed to the Kenosha, Wis., school in early June.
He'll join the Red Men soon enough, bringing with him a final memory of his time with Campton.
"We already knew we were going to get knocked out (of the playoffs)," Hilgart said. "The very last second I got taken down in the box and got a penalty kick - the ref was like, this was going to end it, pretty much. My whole career came down to the last second.
"As soon as I scored the ref blew the whistle and the game was over. It was kind of cool how it ended on that note, on a positive note, and everything came full circle at that point - to score a goal in my last game."