JOHNSTOWN – Fredericktown freshman golfer Will Streby could not have picked a better time to come up big.
He found himself down two strokes going into the 18th and final hole in the third Knox Morrow Athletic Conference Tournament at the beautiful but tough Clover Valley Golf Club on Sept. 12 in Johnstown. Streby had to birdie the final hole to tie with Centerburg junior Dalton Hall— one of the area’s top golfers— for the best individual score of the day.
Streby birdied the par-four, 362-yard 18th, finishing the day by sinking an easy 8-foot putt.
Hall led the Trojans to a first-place finish (346 points). In the meantime, Streby’s efforts helped the young Freddies (388) to a surprising second place finish. Highland (399) placed third.
“It was a tough course and I kind of struggled at times,” Streby said. “I was hitting my irons really well and I was pretty decent with my driver.”
Streby was proud of the Freddies’ team effort in the tournament.
“Our team really stepped it up and played well as a group,” Streby said. “It was a great effort.”
Streby’s coach might have been more excited than was Streby himself.
“(Streby) just stepped up and came up clutch— big-time clutch,” Fredericktown golf coach Fred Main said. “Knowing where he was and who he was against, he hit two gorgeous shots and drained a birdie putt to clinch that tie. That says a lot about his mental fortitude, to step up and do that, knowing he was two shots down going into the last hole.”
Streby, Hall and the other golfers had to contend with fast greens, tricky winds and a few subtly (and not-so-subtly) sloping greens.
“The pin positions were kind of hard today,” Streby said. “I was able to get my short game down on some of those holes and that helped a lot. The course can be a bit tricky off the tee, sometimes. A lot of my tee shots would go out of bounds and I would have to scramble to reach par.”
Hall was one of five Trojans' golfers to place in the top ten individuals. Centerburg's Levi Houck and Mick Mead were tied for third at 86, Dallas Cornett (90) placed seventh and Centerburg's Reed Compton tied with Fredericktown's Ian Muka (95) for 10th place.
"I think getting through the first five holes of the course was our biggest challenge," Centerburg coach Nathan Altizer said. "We had some 3-putts during those holes and several were out of play on the fifth, off the tee. After we got through those holes, the guys really seemed to settle down and they played much better the rest of the way."
