White Pigeon golf coach Mark Olsen would still like to see his team be a little sharper.
If the Chiefs are any better, they are going to be qualifying for the U.S. Open.
With five players shooting 45 or better at the St. Joe Valley Golf Club on Wednesday, the Chiefs totaled a 161, their best score since the 2009 season, to win their second St. Joseph Valley League tournament this week. Mendon shot a 179 and Centreville a 183.
The 2014 White Pigeon boys golf team.
‘’I’m happy with the way we are playing, and with a little practice around the greens, it will get even better,’’ Olsen said. ‘’We continue to lose a lot of strokes around the green, which is very atypical for these players.’’
The group didn’t lose too many, though. Riley Olsen led the way with a 38. Christian Ryall-Shoup was just one shot behind at 39. Jordan Olsen shot a 40, Andrew Mann a 44 and Cory Snook a 45. This is the second time this week the teams have played St. Joe Valley. They hit the back nine on Wednesday.
‘’We had another strong performance,’’ Olsen said of his Chiefs. ‘’Shooting a 161 is a very good score and it also means you have good, balanced scoring.’’
And it was good for all the teams to finally hit outside.
‘’Riley, Jordan, Christian and Andrew all have very good short game skills that are suffering because of limited time outdoors,’’ Olsen said. ‘’It’s very hard to practice indoors and simulate real grass types of shots.’’
Medalist honors went to Centreville’s Logan Heffner who shot a 35. Also for the Bulldogs, it was Jon Peckinpaugh, 41; Eli Schwartz, 47; and Travis Shears, 60.
‘’It was a pretty consistent round: bogey, birdie, par, par, birdie, par, par, bogey, bogey,’’ Heffner said. ‘’It feels great because I didn’t think the season would start off this way.
‘’Overall, it was great, but there is still room for improvement, though.’’
Mendon’s top scorer was Robert Riley with a 42. The rest of the Hornets’ scoring was Garrett Schaeffer, 43; Dylan Clark, 45; Tyler Frisbie, 49; and Zach Higgins, 50.