St. Edward's Mattas finds the range; Vernon Hills wins regional

Contrary to what his score card suggested, Michael Mattas hit several bad golf shots Tuesday.

Fortunately for the St. Edward junior, they were all on the driving range.

"I was hitting it pretty bad on the range," Mattas said. "I was pretty nervous. But I knew I could figure it out on the course, and I did."

Once Mattas stopped hitting range balls and teed off in the Class 2A Vernon Hills regional at White Deer Run Golf Club, his nerves disappeared and never reappeared. Mattas fired a sizzling 4-under-par 68 - 4 strokes better than runner-up/Wisconsin-bound Jordan Hahn of Richmond-Burton - to earn medalist honors and a berth in next Monday's sectional at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club in Grayslake.

Vernon Hills coach Shawn Healey said Mattas' 68 is the best score ever shot by a high school golfer at White Deer Run. Only four golfers, in total, broke 80 in the nine-team field.

Mattas' score also set a St. Edward record.

"That's pretty insane," junior Michael Murdy, whose 81 led third-place Grayslake Central, said of Mattas' 68. "He lit that up. That's pretty crazy."

"That's a great round," said Vernon Hills 5-foot-3 freshman Brian Favia, who shot an 81 to tie Murdy for fifth place and take home a medal. "He's got to be going D-I somewhere."

Vernon Hills (321), Richmond-Burton (323) and Grayslake Central (331) are all going to the sectional. The individual qualifiers included three Antioch golfers - senior Dillon Kreutzer (85), junior Braden Ward (86) and senior Jason Mrkonich (88) - and Lakes senior Mike Barry (85). It was Barry's third sectional berth in as many years. Besides Mattas, who is not committed to a college, St. Edward advanced Jason Allen (89), who outlasted teammate Aaron Worf (89) and Wauconda's Will Rudd (89) in a sudden-victory playoff for the final sectional-qualifying spot. Allen prevailed over Rudd on the sixth hole.

Sophomore Justin Park led Vernon Hills with a 75 to place third. The Cougars, who won last week's North Suburban Conference meet with a 297, had all six of their golfers break 90. They also counted senior Bo Manso's 82 and senior Ricky Schmidt's 83.

Vernon Hills' score was 24 strokes higher than what the team carded at conference.

"I was surprised we shot a higher score today because this is our home course and we should shoot a lot lower," Park said. "I'm so glad that we won this regional tournament. It's fun to win."

"We didn't have our best stuff, but we definitely played well enough to get through," Favia said. "We played well in these (windy) conditions on a tough golf course."

Mattas' round included 3 birdies on the back nine, which saw him shoot a 3-under 33. He estimated the longest putt he made was from about 25-30 feet on a par 3. He had shot a 74 in practice round at White Deer Run on Sunday.

Mattas hit his second shot on the par-5 third hole within 12 feet, but then three-putted for par. That putting display was atypical for him on a sunny but somewhat windy day.

"I made some good par putts," said Mattas, whose previous best round was a 69, which he shot at Elgin Country Club this season. "I was aggressive on the greens all day. I just made the ones coming back that I needed to make for par."

Besides Murdy's season-best 81, Grayslake Central received matching 82s from freshman Michael Sisk and senior Josh Schneider and an 86 from junior Kyle Reynolds.

"It can play tough," Murdy said of White Deer Run. "But there were some good birdie chances out there."

Marian Central senior Kyler Hardie finished fourth with a 77.