Highland boys golf rolls past Belleville East, gears up for conference tournament

The Highland boys golf team started this week off with a bang Sept. 14 at Cardinal Creek Golf Course at Scott Air Force Base.

The Bulldogs turned in a top-shelf effort, outshooting Belleville East 155 to 173 to win a dual match.

Once again, senior Evan Sutton paced the Bulldogs, as he claimed match medalist honors by shooting a 35 on the par-36 course. Sutton has been Highland’s anchor this fall.

“He has been the match medalist in every individual stroke play event we’ve played this year,” Highland coach Brent James said.

On Sept. 14, Sutton was not sharp early but turned things around down the stretch.

“He came out struggling a little bit on the first hole; I was thinking tonight might be an off round for him,” James said. “But he corrected the ship pretty quickly and he was two over (par) after his first three (holes) and then ended up (play) going one under, so he finished strong.”

Sutton used a new putter that helped him shoot well on the final holes.

“He put a new putter in the bag and that seemed to work tonight,” James said. He had four birdies and hit seven greens and had 14 putts.”

Jaxton Black shot a 39 and Bryce Knackstedt fired a 40.

Jake Brauns also overcame a slow start and finished well, shooting a 41.

“Same with Jake Brauns,” James said. “He started really slow but then played the last six holes at even-par. I was really happy to see him grind it out and kind of persevere ... after a couple of rough holes it would have been easy for him to shut it down but he didn’t and it showed me a lot of mental toughness there. I was proud to see that.”

Playing at Cardinal Creek was a first-time experience for most of HHS’s golfers. Three Bulldogs players had played the course last year but the rest of the team had not seen the course before Sept. 14.

“It’s pretty much all out in front of you and it’s a well maintained course, small greens and it’s not a course where the home team has a major advantage,” James said. “It’s a pretty flat property so there’s not a lot of blind shots or anything like that.”

It was a challenging but successful day for the Highland boys golf team when the ventured to Shiloh for the O’Fallon Panther Classic Tournament.

Bulldogs boys golf finishes 4th at O’Fallon Invitational

Despite, battling breezy conditions and firm greens at Tamarack Golf Course, the Bulldogs turned in a solid performance finishing fourth in the 16-team tournament Friday afternoon.

Highland shot a 322 for the day finishing just three point behind host O’Fallon which finished second with a 319.

Althoff won the tournament going away with a first place score of 302 and Mater Dei tied for second with O’Fallon with a score of 319.

“Courses are getting a lot firmer now with the drier weather so little misses are getting turned into bigger misses, so I didn’t really feel like the boys played that bad. It’s just with tougher courses, their scores will go up a little bit,” James said. “We were rigb there with some top programs, so I was pretty happy.”

Sutton leads the way for HHS

Sutton led the Bulldogs with a 76 score that was good for fifth place overall and just one stroke off of second place. It was Sutton’s highest 18-hole round to date this fall but given the course and the competition, it was still a commendable day for him.

“Evan shot a 76 which was his high 18-hole round this year,” James said. “His front nine was pretty tough and there were a couple hole that were playing tougher than normal with tee boxes and everything, but, overall, a 76 is nothing that’s alarming.”

Max Bruening of Althoff shot the low round of the day with a 71 to finish first overall.

Sutton was followed by Brauns, who shot an 84, Bryce Knackstedt and Dominic Imig shot an 85, and Black fired an 86 to aid the Bulldogs cause.

“Overall, the scores were a bit more elevated today,” James said. “I think it was a little more wind and firmness (of the greens) that made the course play a little tougher.”

Highland drops first match of season

Previously-undefeated Highland started a critical week off Monday in Breese with a dual match against unbeaten Breese Mater Dei.

HHS shot fairly well on the day but the host Knights were a little better, besting the Bulldogs 149 to 162 at Bent Oak Golf Course to hand Highland its first match play loss of the season.

“They (Mater Deo) went low as they shot a 149 and we shot a 162, so it wasn’t as tight of a match as I had hoped,” James said. “162 lately has been the average for us so it was a little on the high end of average.”

Carter Goebel and Zander Bruggeman had big rounds for Mater Dei as both shot even par for the match.

Sutton paced Highland with a 39, Black shot 41, Imig fired a 41, and Reid Koishor shot a score of 44.

“We played OK golf,” James said. “It was a few more strokes than we would have liked (to have had) but rarely do you walk off the course and say yeah that’s exactly what I wanted to do.”

James please with Koishor’s return

Koishor’s performance was a welcome sight for James and the Bulldogs as he was making his first appearance back on the links after recovering from a quarantine period due to contracting COVID-19.

“It was nice to see Reid back and playing some good golf,” James said. “We lost him for a few weeks due to quarantine, so it was good to see him find his rhythm and shoot a solid round of nine’s so it’s a little bit of confidence builder (for him) knowing we have one more guy that can score for us going into our conference (tournament) which is coming up.”

Next on the schedule for the Bulldogs is the biggest event of the season to date.

A trip to the Mississippi Valley Conference Tournament on Wednesday, Sept. 23, at Belk Park Golf Course in Wood River.

The tournament begins at 9 a.m.

This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 12:20 AM.