Coming into their fourth match of the season none of the five golfers on Tyrone\’s roster had played at the Lewistown Country Club. That may have had something to do with their 371 team score, the highest in any of their four matches. Even star player Jimmy Gillam struggled by his standards, shooting over-par for the first time this season.
Despite their high score, Tyrone managed to defeat Penns Valley, who finished at 386. Zane Wagner had the Rams\’ best performance, finishing with a 90. Warren Blume finished at 94 and Joe Wright and Josh Manning both finished at 101.
Hollidaysburg put up the team low score of the day of 318 despite missing their best golfer, Sean Brannen. Brannen, who could be one of Gillam\’s closest competitors in districts, was out with a back injury. Jake Biltz, Adam Huber and Anthony DeGol did their best to make up for his absence with scores of 76, 78 and 79 respectively. Kevin Koronowski rounded out the team score with an 85. The sweep of Indian Valley, Tyrone and Penns Valley moved Hollidaysburg\’s record to 8-0.
Indian Valley finished second behind a strong performance by Chad Weaver. Weaver\’s 74 was good enough for the second best score of the day. Mary Larsh overcame a 10 on the par-5 11th hole to shoot an 88, and Doug Merrifield and Alex Yoder both recorded a score of 89 to make the team score 340.
Matt Brooks, who averaged a 91.6 in his first three matches this season, was the only Tyrone golfer that placed who finished at his average with a 92, but even Brooks felt he could have done better.
\”My driver was on, but my irons and wedges weren\’t great, and my putter was horrible,\” Brooks said.
Brooks wasn\’t the only Tyrone golfer struggling with the putter Tuesday.
The day started off great for Gillam, who birdied the par-4 first hole with a 12 foot putt, but on the next hole Gillam missed a midrange birdie putt that set the tone for the rest of the day.
Gillam bogeyed the par-3 third hole to fall back to even and never got back into red the rest of the day.
Another par-3, the eighth hole, produced another bogey in a front nine filled with two-putt pars.
The 10th hole, another par-3, led to another bogey which left Gillam at 2-over-par, but an unorthodox approach to the par-5 11th hole ended with a birdie.
Teeing off last, Gillam watched as all of his opponents hit irons straight from the tee box on the par-5 which hooked to the left. Going against conventional wisdom, Gillam teed up his ball and brought out a driver and aimed straight for the flag. Gillam was able to avoid the trees and a pond to land his drive on the fringe of the 12th hole green. From there he had a clear shot at reaching the 11th green. Although his shot came up short, he had a short chip and putt for birdie to move back to 1-over-par.
The 12th through 16th hole featured tap ins from inches away for pars after birdies that just came up short.
\”I couldn\’t get any putts to the hole, because the greens were so slow,\” Gillam said.
Gillam finally sunk a birdie putt on the par-4 17th hole to move back to even, but hit into a fairway bunker on the par-4 18th hole and then sent his approach over the green on his way to a bogey to finish with a 1-over-par 73.
Jason Tuskovich and Jamie Levinson both slipped to 108 but each had a highlight in their round.
Tuskovich chipped in from 25 yards out on the first hole for birdie, and Levinson added a long chip-in of his own for a birdie on the par-5 second hole.
Levinson\’s birdie was the first in his limited time on the golf course.
\”It was fantastic; I just stood there in awe,\” Levinson said.
Ryan Ruscio continued a slight personal slump while shooting a 98. Ruscio\’s score has gone up in each of his four matches which Ruscio describes as, \”frustrating.\”
Tyrone will have a week to work out their problems on the links before traveling to Park Hills to take on Altoona and Bishop Guilfoyle next Tuesday.
