Marquette Catholic captures Alton Teeoff Classic team title

Aug 17, 2016 9:31 AM

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ALTON – Despite recent rainy weather, the area high school golf season got under way Tuesday with the Alton Teeoff Classic tournament at Alton's Spencer T. Olin Golf Course at Gordon Moore Park.

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Rain on Sunday and Monday forced the cancellation of East Alton-Wood River's Hickory Stick Tournament at Belk Park in Wood River and the Madison County Girls Golf Championship at The Legacy in Pontoon Beach, allowing the Teeoff Classic to become the curtain-raiser for the area's high school sporting year on the par-72, 6,941-yard Spencer T. Olin layout.

Marquette Catholic emerged as the team champion on the day, firing a team 298 to lead the 21-team field; Edwardsville finished second with a team 302 and Quincy was third at 314, with Columbia at 321 and O'Fallon at 328 rounding out the team top five. Among area teams, Jersey fired a 380, Alton's “A” team shot 397 and Granite City had a 407, with Alton's “B” team not recording a score.

Edwardsville's Ben Tyrell was the day's medalist with a 6-under 66, with the Explorers' Michael Holtz taking second with an even-par 72 and Marquette's Kolton Bauer and Nick Messinger each firing a 2-over 74; Edwardsville's Spencer Patterson had a 3-over 75 to finish in the individual top 10 on the day, tying him with O'Fallon's Logan Harris.

Springfield's Bryce Ribelin had the highlight of the day with a hole-in-one on the par-3, 163-yard 12^th hole; he wound up tied for 13^th with a 6-over 78 as the Senators finished ninth as a team with a 356.

“The kids are playing pretty good,” said Explorer coach Pat Moore. “Some wet conditions, but it looks like they're getting around the course just fine. The kids were disappointed (after Monday's cancellation of the Hickory Stick tournament at Belk Park, where Marquette was two-time defending team champions), but this is a great one to kick everything off.

“Even though it's wet out here and the ball's not rolling through the fairways, they're still hitting good shots and the ball's still reacting on the green really well. The course is in great shape, and it's nice to see that. You just have to play what the weather gives you.”

“We're doing OK,” said Granite City coach Jeff Ridenour. “A couple of our guys are hitting it OK for the first time out. It's a little difficult with all the rain we've got; the course is playing a little difficult and we didn't get any swings on the (driving) range, so I told them to just go out and do the best they can for the first day.

“We have five returners, including two seniors, a couple of juniors and a sophomore, but we have a lot of numbers at the freshman level. We're going to be OK this year but with the talent coming up in the future, we're going to be OK.”

“Things went good for our first tournament of the year,” said Redbird coach Zach Deeder. “It rained a lot and rained about a half-hour before we teed off, so the course played much longer; it was more difficult to get around and I think scores are going to be higher on average this year.

“You've got to play through the rain; the humidity is way up, we've had several kids who dropped out because of the humidity. It's been a tough tournament but we hope to have a good showing, but so far, so good. At least it didn't get rained out this year like last year. It's nice to get to play, but it (the rainy conditions) did cut down on our prep time.”

“It was good; we got pounded with rain yesterday and a little bit today, but the course held up well,” said East Alton-Wood River coach Dave Sobol, who's son Drew played as an individual (he tied for 16^th with a 7-over 79 on the day). “The conditions were fine and and it was a good day.”