For Stevenson's Kowalski, Mondays are medalist gold mines
Monday, Monday.
For the second Monday in two weeks, Landon Kowalski of Stevenson captured medalist honors at the Lake County boys golf invitational, carding a 4-under 67 on the 6,097-yard Antioch Golf Club.
"Monday seems to be a good day for me," said Kowalski, who finished in the top spot last Monday in the Rolling Green Invitational. "I can't wait for the next tournament. It was a huge confidence boost winning two in a row."
Kowalski shot a 33 on the front side and followed it with a 35 on the back.
"There wasn't much of a difference, maybe this was an easier course," Kowalski said. "I was driving the ball a little bit better, but some of the holes here are a little bit tighter than I want it to be.
"I made 2 birdies in the first six to seven holes. it got me going. I gave back a shot here and there and made it back with a birdie. I was hitting the driver most of the day and I was being aggressive, probably more aggressive than I should have been - and it paid off. "
Kowalski's sparkling round help lift the Patriots to first place in the 18-team field with a total of 285, 3 strokes ahead of second-place Lake Forest (288), third-place Deerfield (293) and fourth-place Mundelein (294).
"Nobody worked harder than Kowalski the last two years in the summertime," said Patriots coach John Rueth. "He knows he's had a lot of work to do and put his mind to it. He's one to help everybody on the team. Good to have a positive role model and the team feeds off it."
Other scorers for the Patriots included Ryan Prince (71), Ryan Colburn (73), Trevor Osmond (74), Josh Spongen (78) and Reed Aren (83).
Mundelein's Eric Nelson finished 2 shots off the lead with a 2-under 69. Nelson's consistent round included 34 on the front nin and 35 on the back side.
"I was hitting fairways and greens," said Nelson, who fired a career-best score after shooting 80 the other day at Whisper Creek in Huntley. "My putts were dropping. I was trying to keep the bogeys and double bogeys away."
Other Mustangs scores included Sean Forsythe (73), Grant Heelan (74), Bret Cigelnik (78), Eric Steagail (81) and Connor Hartnett (81).
Barrington was fifth as Nick Schiavi led the way with an even-par 71. Other Broncos scorers were Greg Conrad (73), Connor Maytnier (78), Mike Stratakis (79), JP Talbot (82) and Taylor Ganzer (82).
"I bounced back from being 2-over through 2 holes," Schiavi said. "I played the rest of the 16 holes 2 under. It was tight and I had to take 3-irons off the tees. The greens were hard to adjust to."
Johnny O'Connor (72) and Cody Franke (76) lifted Lakes to sixth place.
Lake Zurich's Mike Nutter shot a 33 on the front and followed up with a 38 for an even-par 71.