Waynesburg Central fourth in WPIAL golf finals
CANONSBURG – All things considered, one can pretty safely assume that the Weathermaker is not a scholastic golf fan. At least he wasn’t Thursday.
Eight scholastic golf teams, four each in Divisions I and II, competed for WPIAL championship honors over the Lindenwood Golf Course, battling each other, intermittent rain and chilly weather all combined.
Butler, led by John Aubrey’s and Jon Pratkanis’ 1-over-73, won the Division I title, with a combined team score of 400, followed by Upper St. Clair with 402, Franklin Regional 408 and North Allegheny 417.
Medal honors in either division went to Tim Moynihan of Franklin Regional with 1-under-par 34-37-71.
Division II was a battle right down to the fifth and sixth players before South Fayette won top honors with a 412 total, followed by Greensburg Central Catholic’s 420. Serra Catholic was next at 427, and Waynesburg Central finished fourth with a 454.
Brian DePaul led South Fayette and took division medal honors with 78.
Players went out on the Red Nine (Par 36) and came back on the Blue Nine (Par 36).
Waynesburg got away to a bad start with none of their six players being under 40 on the front, Eric Churney the best with a 41. Coming back, Robert Rohanna fired a 3-over 39 to wind up with 83 and team medal honors. Kellen Haines was next with 85.
Rohanna said later, “No part of my game was really consistent today, but despite a double-bogey on 18 (525, 7), I still finished with a 39. On 18, I hit into the water. Actually, I hit over the water, but the ball landed on a little bit of a hill and it rolled back down into the water.”
That was just another example of how his luck went.
On the front nine he “hit a tree, and the ball caromed out of bounds. It seemed like everything went wrong on the front nine. I had two three-putt greens and one four-putt. I played more consistently on the back nine, but the weather didn’t help my depth perception. I did get a par on 10 (430, 4), although my drive hooked into some trees and I hit a punch shot out. My hands were cold and I had trouble gripping the club, but I hit a 5-iron to about 15 yards short of the green, then got up and down for par, with about a six-foot putt.”
The day wasn’t a total loss, for he did have three birdies: on three (525, 5), nine (290, 4) and 15 (323, 4).
On three, he “hit a good drive, then a five-wood to about five-yards short of the green, chipped on, and got the six-foot putt. Nine is a short par-four, and I hit my drive to the left about 30 yards, then put a sand wedge to the green, and got a 15-foot putt. On 15, I hit my drive 40 yards from the green, a sand wedge to about three feet, and got the putt.”
Waynesburg coach John Garber called the occasion “a tough day all around. The conditions weren’t that good all over. South Fayette played very well and they deserved to win. One of our goals was to get here, which we did, and the other goal was to win, which we didn’t, but we still had a great season.”
Two golfers were in their last match as Raiders, with their coach noting “we will miss having Kellen Haines and Eric Churney with us. They are our only two seniors, and they have played for us since they were freshmen. We will have four of our six starters back next year.”
In the race for the title, South Fayette came on with a drive over the final two holes that would have made Arnold Palmer proud.
With four players in on each side, Greensburg Central Catholic led 330 to 339. Then the No. 5 players came in, South Fayette’s Mike Cord with a 79, to C.J. Bell’s 90, and the soon to be champions had rallied from nine down to two ahead.
Kevin Hart finished with 42, for a wrap-up 89 in the sixth spot for South Fayette, to Denver Faulk’s 48-93 for Greensburg Central Catholic. With the highest score of the six being tossed out for team scoring purposes, Faulk’s 93 went out, along with Matt Simpson’s 95 for South Fayette, and the latter was home by eight.