BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Once the state championship was secured for the St. Anthony boys golf team last October, head coach Phil Zaccari knew that the move to Class 2A was imminent.
For the long-time Bulldogs head coach, he wanted the challenge, as did the returning players, but knew there could be bumps in the road along the way.
One such instance happened on Tuesday when St. Anthony traveled to Weibring Golf Course in Normal — the site of the Class 2A state tournament — for the Bloomington Raider/Redbird Invitational.
The Bulldogs finished sixth out of 21 teams with a team score of 302. They would have finished fifth overall in Class 2A if the state tournament were in August, as Normal (University), Quincy (Notre Dame), Mt. Zion and Arlington Heights (St. Viator) all finished ahead of the seven-time state champions.
“This is a really good prep for what Class 2A state is going to be like — we definitely have our work cut out for us,” Zaccari said. “We shot 302 and that’s usually a pretty good score. The quality of the field here and the quality of 2A this year are going to be stacked.
“The more we can compete against the best, the better we’ll be.”
Zaccari felt like his team grinded through their respective rounds the entire afternoon.
Sensational freshman Logan Gowin was the low individual for St. A, firing a 74. He shot a 36 on the front nine and a 38 on the back.
“Logan played a ‘Logan’ round,” Zaccari said. “Right now, he’s had like one bad hole, but he fights back. I love the tenacity. He’s got that mentality of, ‘I got to get this back.’”
Senior Maddux Clark was right behind Gowin with a 75. He fired a 39 on the front nine and a 36 on the back.
“Maddux grinded. We just have to learn how to finish,” Zaccari said. “He had a couple of tough breaks down the stretch and made bogeys, but he grinded through.”
The final two scores to count toward the team total were junior Briggs Whitley’s 76 and senior Alec Hakman’s 77.
Whitley shot a 38 on both the front and back nines.
“Briggs has pretty much established where he’s at. We had some driver issues, but he was able to manipulate it to the point where he was able to score,” Zaccari said. “He didn’t hit a lot of fairways, but it didn’t hurt him.”
Hakman shot a 40 on the front nine; he was three strokes better on the back, shooting a 37.
“He’s becoming our ‘grinder.’ He’ll have a couple of bad holes, but he’ll grind it back,” Zaccari said. “He definitely has a team-first attitude.”
The scores that didn’t count were senior Drake Brown’s 79 and freshman James Trupiano’s 84.
Brown shot a 41 on the front nine and a 38 on the back.
“Drake’s getting there,” Zaccari said. “He shot 79. In past years, we’d count a 79, but we throw out a 79 right now. He grinded his round, as well.”
Trupiano shot a 41 on the front and a 43 on the back.
“James is learning. He’s coming along,” Zaccari said. “What he’s trying to do is hit it too far and too hard.”
The home course to Illinois State University’s men’s and women’s golf teams, Weibring Golf Course is one of the hardest tracks south of I-80.
The problem most players have isn’t the tee shots, though. It’s 100 yards-and-in.
“You look at it and you go, ‘This is not a hard course. It’s pretty much straight this way, straight that way.’ Then, you get on the greens,” Zaccari said. “We missed a lot of short putts that we should have made. We haven’t quite got to the point where we understand (the greens).”