Muselman misses medalist

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CELINA, Ohio — If the wide open course was challenging enough, a light drizzle throughout the round sure wasn’t going to help.

David Muselman shrugged off the conditions and made it a point to not let it affect him.

He was still slightly disappointed with his result despite a career achievement.

Muselman shot a 40 on Tuesday, missing match medalist honors by one stroke as the South Adams High School boys golf team competed with Allen County Athletic Conference rivals Adams Central and Jay County at Celina Lynx.

“I was feeling confident with my iron and my drivers, but I was struggling putting,” said Muselman, a South Adams senior who recorded his first career eagle. “I bogeyed a lot of holes so I was thankful for that eagle.”

Major Spegal of Adams Central shot 39 to post the lowest score of the day, leading the Jets to a team total of 199. Jay County was one stroke behind in second, and South Adams shot 220 for third.

“Seeing improvement,” said JCHS coach Butch Gray, whose team was last out of 11 teams in the South Adams Invitational on Saturday. “Tough night with the drizzle and the rain. Happy with the progress, we just have to keep building from there.”

Playing on the front nine, Muselman was 4 over par through five holes, struggling the most on what he called the slowest greens he’s played on all season. On the par-5 sixth hole, he drove about 200 yards from the green and grabbed a 5-wood out of his bag.

His second shot landed 10 feet from the cup, and he nailed the putt for the eagle.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I loved it.”

The Starfires’ No. 1 golfer was aiming to build off his accomplishment, only to finish his round bogey, bogey, par.

“I’m feeling confident about a 40 with an eagle but I still had six bogeys,” he said. “I still feel like I’m right there. I feel like I could have shot par tonight.

“Everyone says ‘Coulda, woulda, shoulda.’”

And Starfire coach Josh Hendrixson is eagerly awaiting the time Musleman can put everything together for a complete round.

“When he starts cleaning some things up around the green I think his numbers are really going to go down,” he said. “He is hitting the ball well now, hits it a lot further than he did last year. His irons are on. He’s hitting a lot of greens in regulation. He’s playing some good golf.”

Eli Hamrick, the No. 2 golfer for South Adams, was second on the team with a 49. It marked his first time breaking 50.

Blaine Harruff and Braden Bixler shot 65 and 66 respectively to complete the team score.

Jay County senior Collin Haines, who was grouped with Muselman, was stroke-for-stroke with his counterpart until the eagle. Haines finished with a 41, three days after beating Muselman on Saturday.

Griffin Mann, a JCHS freshman, set a career-low score of 52 to finish second on the team. Auston Rittenhouse shot 53 and Joey Hall had a 54 to also set new career best scores.

“I’ll take that every day,” Gray said of the performances by Rittenhouse and Hall. “I think they can improve (more). They have been improving.”

A light drizzle for a couple hours before the match started made the entire course slow, but it was most prevalent on the greens. Putts required more power and didn’t break as much as they would if the greens were dry.

But Gray is hopeful to see better scores once Mother Nature gets her act together and brings drier, warmer temperatures.

“The greens are not in shape,” he said. “Some are bumpy. (The) grass is longer. It’ll come around. When the weather gets nice a lot of those problems will erase.”