Jay struggles, but tops Bears (09/04/2008)

It was a two-win week, but still one the Patriots would rather forget.

After spending three straight matches within striking distance of the school record, the Jay County girls golf team has struggled with penalty strokes. It posted a 199 Tuesday night, and followed that effort Wednesday by eking out a 201-204 victory at Portland Golf Club over the Monroe Central Golden Bears.

"We've got to have four of them come in if we're going to have a chance. This is one of those nights where we had more than one golfer struggle, and the score shows it," said JCHS coach Tom Ferguson, whose team posted scores of 184, 182 and 184 in its three matches prior to this week. "It was definitely a rough night. I don't think the concentration is there. They're missing too many short putts. ...

"But I know they're frustrated too. ... We're going to have a couple days of practice here and I think we can get some confidence going again."

Despite the difficulties, the Patriots improved to 6-1 and are still chasing last year's school-record 11-1 mark. Ivy Simons, the match medalist, and Abby Denney led the way to the victory with scores of 47 and 48 respectively.

Danielle Wright had the top score for Monroe Central with a 49.

Simons, a senior, had her best run on the second through fifth holes, playing them at 3-over-par. After a bogey on No. 2, she posted the lone par of her round on the 284-yard, par-3 third hole.

She added back-to-back bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes and another on No. 7 as she led the Patriots.

Denney also played a fairly consistent round, coming up with her lone par on No. 1. Her tee shot was long, but far to the right by the No. 9 fairway. However, she hit a perfect chip to the middle of the green and two-putted for the par.

The sophomore added bogeys on the second, fifth and eighth holes.

"If you take Abby Denney's scorecard, you see three fours on there, one seven, so she played pretty consistent," said Ferguson. A 48 is under her average.

"Ivy Simons, 47 is under her average. ... Those are two quality scores for this golf course. ... That is a positive."

Jay County's other three players were hurt by penalty strokes, especially on the dogleg left, 347-yard, par-4 seventh hole.

Jennifer Hunt and Rachel Osterholt each had problems with the out of bounds to the left as they took 10s on the hole, and Cara Garringer lost a ball in the pond to the right for an eight. Garringer also had problems with No. 4 for the second straight day, needing three tries to get off the tee in bounds en route to a 10.

There were bright spots for the trio as Hunt had pars on the second and fourth holes along with three bogeys as she shot 51. Garringer parred the sixth hole on the way to her 55. And Osterholt was on pace to shoot her average before struggling on the No. 7, her last hole of the day, to finish at 56.

"We played really well on this course the first round we played last week ... but this course does have a lot of problem holes," said Ferguson. "(There is) out of bounds left, and penalties just killed us yesterday and tonight. It's something we've got to work on mentally. We've got to be mentally tougher.

"We saw 10s in the last two nights that we haven't seen all season. I think we'll be OK. We just need to get rid of these two rounds ... and throw them out, because we can play a lot better golf. We're capable of making a run around sectional time."

Junior varsity

Macey Gerber turned in the only par of the day for Jay County, which shot 235. Monroe Central did not have enough players to post a JV score.

Gerber picked up her par on No. 7 and also had bogeys on the sixth and ninth holes as she shot 54. Alex Bunch added a 58, and Brittany Stevens shot 59.

Megan Price completed the team score with a 64, and Katie Garlinger shot 65.[[In-content Ad]]