Rough day

GENEVA — The Patriots haven’t had to battle too much inclement weather so far this season.

There have been a few hot spells and rain and course conditions have kept them away from competition, but Tuesday was the first time a match got canceled midway through.

They finally hit some rough weather, and it kept the Patriots in the rough.

The Jay County High School boys golf team fought rainy and chilly conditions on Thursday as it fell to the South Adams Starfires 172-181 at the Wabash Valley Golf Course.

“Well, with the weather conditions tonight, I felt like we shouldn’t have been playing,” JCHS coach Dave Haines said. “We just had two of our varsity that struggled with the conditions. I think mentally, it kind of put us out of play and we lost by nine.”

Caleb DeRome stayed consistent at the top of Jay County’s roster. His round of 39 strokes earned him match medalist honors. The JCHS senior narrowly beat out South Adam’s No. 1 golfer  Graham Subler by one stroke.

“I’ve played in the rain a lot before,” DeRome said. “This isn’t my first time playing in bad weather. I had good ball striking.

“Just don’t do anything differently than you would normally do it.”

DeRome never shot worse than a bogey, while making par five times.

His day started on the right note, as he parred his first two holes of the day.

His foursome started on the 522-yard, par-5 17th hole. DeRome came off the tee strong, with a drive that landed him in the middle of the fairway just before the hole started to dogleg left. He sent his second shot relatively straight, grazing some trees on the left hand side, but the ball didn’t rebound hard, allowing it to pass through to the right half of the fairway, 125 yards from the pin.

His third shot put him on the green in regulation. His first putt came up just about three feet short, but he made the next for par.

He didn’t make the green in regulation on the 146-yard, par-3 18th hole, but he cleared the water and the trees to land just left of the green. His chip ran about four feet long to set up a short putt for par.

“Those first two holes were pretty good, those two pars to start,” DeRome said. “That was when it was raining the hardest. …

“Considering the weather, that was pretty good. I’m pretty happy with that.”

The rest of the Patriots couldn’t say the same. Liam Garringer produced the second-best score of 44. Despite a triple-bogey and three double-bogeys, three pars and a birdie on hole No. 15 earned him the fourth best score of the day (from a varsity player).

Outside of each team’s No. 1 golfer, former Jay County golfer, Ricky Nava, beat Garringer with a 41.

Making up the final two scores for the Patriots (6-2, 2-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) were Gage Sims and Cody DeHoff with a 48 and 50, respectively.

Sims’ day started and ended with struggles, but the middle of his match went well. He started with a quadruple-bogey before rattling off three bogeys and two pars over the next five holes. Things turned sour again on the 14th hole with a triple bogey. The senior shot one more bogey before finishing with a double par.

DeHoff had similar struggles, but more dispersed throughout the match. He shot par twice, bogey three times, double bogey twice, triple bogey once and double par once.

“Everything is wet and the air is different,” Haines said. “You’re leaving it short a lot more than you normally do. You’re hitting it heavy because the ground is wet and then you don’t get roll out. Everybody plays into the same conditions and it can’t be an excuse. You just have to deal with what you’ve got and go from there.”

Other scores for the Starfires came from Conner Feat (45) and Noah Hunley (46).

Both team’s No. 4 golfers didn’t contribute to the team score as Luke Fugiett shot a 51 and Hal Ringger put up a 52.