Golfers gave their best shot in WPIAL finals
The words that remained with me the most from my tour of the WPIAL golf championships over the past two weeks came from Laurel Highlands junior Megan Joyce.
Smiling, perhaps out of frustration, Joyce described Oakmont Country Club with the words: “That course is SO hard.”
Well, Megan, I imagine more than a few folks who’ve played in the over 20 USGA events the marquee club has hosted would heartily agree.
The thing about it though, as I was reminded with guys on the first tee as the girls meandered into the the scoring table, is that is the home course for a lot of golfers. Golfers not in my pay grade, mind you, but folks play there all the time and deal with the grass, traps and lightning-fast greens all season long.
I don’t like golf THAT much.
(I stepped inside the men’s locker room for a bathroom break, and encountered Jack Nicklaus’ nameplate on the locker he uses when in town. I won’t speak for the Golden Bear, but I’m guessing he might agree with young Miss Joyce’s assessment of Oakmont.)
Watching golf at Oakmont is, unfortunately, about golfers moving from one misfortune to the next.
Uniontown’s Adena Rugola hit the opening tee shot of the Class AAA final, and the junior found misfortune from the get-go when her ball found a fairway sand trap.
Joyce teed off a little later and her misfortune was landing in high grass. The ball was not found in the three-minute window, so it cost her a shot. The misfortune of the misfortune was the daughter of Mustangs coach Louis Gonzalez finding Joyce’s LH ball, positioned in such a manner she would’ve had a decent shot from the grass.
Belle Vernon’s Jake Caldwell played in the boys Class AAA final on the famed golf course in 2018. The then-junior hit into a bunker in seven of the first nine holes, including both sides of the famed “Church Pew” bunkers.
So, the noted lightning-quick greens await once a golfer is able to navigate the high grass, sand traps and undulating fairways. But, as Joyce found out on No. 3, the fairways can be pretty slick, too.
Joyce was sitting about 25-30 yards below the third green, with, oh, say a 20-30 foot rise to a pin position poised just beyond a significant drop towards the fairway.
Just how much of a drop?
Well, Megan found out when her pitch was a few feet short of the pin and started to roll, agonizingly slow at first, off the green, picking up speed down the fairway until is nestled nearly in the same spot it left. Unfortunately, she had the same exact result on her next attempt before Joyce gave it more than enough oomph to get past the pin.
I must say, though, I had one of my finest moments on XBox when I crushed the field — with my thumbs, mind you — with an incredible four-round score of 35-under, or something like that, at Oakmont. Why should I jeopardize that memory by actually playing the course?
Same goes for Megan Joyce. She birdied No. 18. I suggested she not play anymore tournament golf in 2020, so she can say her last hole was a birdie at Oakmont!
A couple days earlier I watched putt after putt at South Hills Country Club during the boys Class AAA final slide past the hole, not by a foot or so, but a by a healthy distance for a tough second putt.
Then, there was Belle Vernon sophomore Patrick Bush. Bush was weaving his way through the course in the boys championship until he hit the middle two holes, both par-5s.
Bush carded back-to-back quadruple bogey-9s on the holes. However, to his credit, the sophomore didn’t throw a fit or quit, because he had three birdies in the final eight holes to play the back in 1-over after the awful start.
Bush actually scored 65 on the other 16 holes, which when extrapolated out would’ve likely landed him one of the five PIAA berths.
Bush was talking with Albert Gallatin’s Matt Karpeal, who had his own issues on getting the speed of the greens, laughing, sharing their misery and enjoying the fact both were among the best big school golfers in one of the biggest districts of the state.
Both got a good laugh when I suggested my headline might read, “Bush pulls into tie with Karpeal for 25th place.”
Carmichaels senior Remmey Lohr was unable to shake a case of the “shanks” in the Class AA final.
One of those shanks happened off the eighth tee, a par-3, at Allegheny Country Club. Her tee shot was so far right, it landed on the women’s tee box for No. 6, with ladies waiting to hit their tee shot.
Lohr politely apologized for her wayward shot, but the ladies took it in stride. They didn’t yell or curse. Actually, one offered encouragement, saying, “Don’t worry about it honey. I’ve done that before. Just hit it on the green and (something like) make the putt.”
To their credit, no matter how disappointing the round was, all those young folks I interviewed in the four district championships talked about their round. They didn’t mope or sulk. I mean, they weren’t turning handstands with delight, but most got a laugh or two when describing a particularly awful shot or series of shots, but all were proud they were playing with the best in the WPIAL.
So, with Jefferson-Morgan’s Kyle Clayton, Geibel Catholic’s Claire Konieczny, and GCC’s Zambruno twins waiting another couple weeks for the one-day PIAA Individual Championships, attention turned to the boys team tournament, which began on Monday.
Carmichaels and Waynesburg Central got to stay close to home with the Class AA semifinal at Duck Hollow Golf Club. Uniontown traveled to the Class AAA semifinal at Champion Lakes, while the Belle Vernon boys were in the other Class AAA semi at River Forest.