Patriot golfers sixth at invite

FARMLAND — Jay County’s boys golf team got a feel for how it stacks up against its sectional opponents.
The Patriots also got an idea of what they need to work on to get to regional.
Playing against eight of its 11 sectional foes, Jay County finished sixth Saturday in the Monroe Central Invitational at Hickory Hills Golf Club.
“I thought they kept their head better,” said JCHS coach Butch Gray, whose team shot a 365. Defending sectional champion and preseason No. 9 Yorktown won the invite with a score of 298. Marion was runner up with 323, and Pendleton Heights was third with 326.
Delta and Wapahani — both sectional opponents when the Patriots head back to Hickory Hills after playing the last two seasons at Timber Ridge in Bluffton — were fourth and fifth respectively.
“I thought they just kept grinding,” Gray added. “In just about every spot we improved.
“It’s a work in progress. We’re looking for what we can do at the end of the year. Hopefully we can drop that (team score).”
The Patriots’ team score was 22 strokes better than it was a week ago at The Players Club.
Jay Houck, the Patriots’ No. 1 golfer, improved one stroke from last week to shoot an 82 on Saturday.
Marion’s Braden Drook — he was grouped with Houck — was the match medalist with a 1-under par 71, and was 3 feet shy of his first career hole-in-one on the par-3 second.
“I’m pretty happy,” Houck said. “(I’m) just trying to stay away from double bogeys and triple bogeys and keep it low.
“I think I did a pretty good job. I had a few holes that weren’t so good, but that’s going to happen if you play 18 holes.”
Houck, a sophomore who has been thrust into the leading role after Jay County graduated its top three golfers from last season, made par on eight holes Saturday.
One of those came on the final hole of the day after it appeared he was going to have to take a penalty stroke because he couldn’t find his ball.
His tee shot on the 321-yard, par-4 fourth sailed to the right and bounced off a tree, landing on the opposite side of the fairway close to another tree.
It took him, his playing partners and a number of others to help find it, as none of them saw it ricochet to the left.
He chipped his second shot onto the green from the rough nearly 90 yards out. His birdie putt from about 15 feet missed long, but he saved par from about 6 feet out.
“I had to get it under the tree,” Houck said. “I had a pretty open shot at (the green). I hit it up there and it stopped pretty nicely.”
Houck acknowledged that his short game is something he needs to work on.
“Putting wasn’t the best,” he said. “My iron shots felt pretty good. My drives were pretty good. If I work on putting it should all (come) together.”
Jay County’s No. 2, Graham Haines, followed Houck with an 84, shaving 11 strokes off his score from a week earlier. Haines made par six times in his round, and nearly had a seventh on the 305-yard, par-3 second.
His shot from the tee box landed short of the green, and he chipped on about 8 feet from the cup. His par putt rimmed out to the left and he tapped the ball in for bogey. He had 10 bogeys in all.
Sophomores Kyler Hudson and Nick Hayden turned in scores of 99 and 100 respectively to round out the Patriots’ team score. Collin Haines, Graham’s freshman brother, also competed, scoring a 101.
Hayden (three), Hudson (eight) and Collin Haines (15) all lowered their scores from their second varsity invitational.
“I think they can get a little bit better if they stay away from penalty strokes and that type of thing,” said Gray. “They haven’t played much invitational golf. It’s totally different.”