Boys golf: Buffalo Grove's Beerheide, Prospect champs at regional

Buffalo Grove golfer Ryan Beerheide excelled at Wednesday's IHSA Class 3A golf regional, winning medalist honors by shooting a 74.

The senior's championship effort, however, came as no surprise to Bison coach Peter Duffer, who said Beerheide has put in "years of hard work" to get to this point.

"He's a great kid," said Duffer of Beerheide. "Him and (senior teammate) Dori Lee have been leaders on varsity for us for four years. They've competed and played in extra events during the summer, took lessons, and pushed our team to get better.

"Everyone saw his score today, but it's been a long time coming. He tore it up and played fantastic, and it's because of all of the work he puts in."

Prospect defended its home turf, winning the team title at Mount Prospect Golf Club with a score of 307 to become one of the three teams that will move on to Monday's sectional meet at Buffalo Grove Golf Club.

Stevenson (2nd at 317) and the Bison (3rd, 318) also advanced.

"It was kind of a battle today," said Knights senior Joseph Minelli, who carded a 76, good for a tie for fourth individually.

It was Minelli's first appearance in a varsity regional, and he shook off the butterflies to complete a stellar round of golf.

"Just making up and downs and hitting greens here was tough," added Minelli. "I was a little nervous over my tee shots, especially on the first tee, but overall I'm really happy with my performance."

Luke Kruger of Prospect fired a 75 to tie for second individually, while Knights sophomore Patrick Raupp (77) and seniors Daniel Raupp (79) and Will Salzmann (79) also counted scores in the regional win.

Leading the way for Stevenson's runner-up placement were senior Tate Donica (76, tie for 4th), senior Mandhav Muralidharan (78), and classmates Dylan Kaplan (81) and AJ Goldberg (82).

Ten players not part of advancing teams also moved on to Monday's sectional, and pacing the effort in this category was Zach Lawler of Lake Zurich, a sophomore, who shot 75 to tie for second place.

"The beginning of the season was good for me," said Lawler, "but (since then) I've had kind of a tough run - now I think I'm back on track.

"The greens out here were pretty weird - they're sloped and very undulated - so I just tried to hit it in all the right spots. I had played this course before with my dad and we also came out and played the front nine as a team, and that helped for sure."

Other individual qualifiers included Jake Cohen of Hersey (78), Kevin Mellen from the Huskies (79), Jake Michalak of Lake Zurich (80), Pablo Castro from Palatine (80) and Tim Feerick of Fremd (80).

Others making the trip to the BG sectional will be Kasey May of Palatine, at 81; Dylan Howell from LZ, who fired an 83; and Joey Towns of Fremd, who also finished at 83.

Chad Tramba of Hersey (84) won a playoff to earn the final individual advancement to sectionals, while BG golfers Lee (78), Connor Woodin (82) and Nathan Barbakoff (84) supported Beerheide's meet-winning round to help the Bison move on as a team.

"I just tried to come out today and have some fun," said Beerheide, who followed up a 40, 1-birdie effort on the front 9 with a 1-under par 34 and 3 birds on the back 9.

"I knew the pins were going to be a lot harder on the front nine than the back nine and that obviously showed. The (pin placements) were right on hills, right on ridges and getting the speed down on the greens was a bit tricky for the first couple of holes. I was able to settle in and really figure it out on the back nine."