The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and the Wawasee Warriors were winning.
Shooting a 327, the Warriors took the top spot at Saturday's Warsaw Sectional, played at Stonehenge Golf Club."It was tough out there today with the wind," Wawasee coach Steve Coverstone said. "I'm real happy. The guys stayed away from the big holes. That was one of our goals, to not have any really big holes today."
Wawasee was led by medalist Curtis Coverstone, whose 76 was the lowest score on a windy par-71 course.
"Curtis played great," Steve Coverstone said of his son. "He didn't really hit it that well, he just kept it in play and got it up and down well."
Wawasee's other scores were an 83 from John Kirkwood, 84s from Jordan Dawes and Rees Woodcock, while Michael Jenkins rounded things out with an 86.
"We don't have any terrible scores," Coverstone said. "An 86 was our worst score and a 76 was our best. We kept all five guys in the tournament. If you do that, it takes a lot of pressure off. If you have a really bad hole, you have four other guys who can do it."
With the top three teams advancing to Thursday's Homestead Regional at Orchard Ridge in Fort Wayne, the Warriors will be joined by the Warsaw Tigers and Culver Military Academy Eagles, who finished second and third, respectively.
"That's all we came here to do, to play well enough to get out so we could go to regional," Warsaw coach Ben Barkey said. "We have to play better. Our guys know that, so we'll just see."
Warsaw was led by Kal Denlinger's 79, while Ben Harris followed with an 85 and Scott Boyle, Will Brown and Eric Tandy all shot an 87.
"He's a very accomplished player with a great swing, and I couldn't be more pleased with his score," Barkey said of Denlinger.
A team looking from the outside-in was Tippecanoe Valley, whose 350 left them in fourth place.
"To get fourth place out of a No. 8 seed in the tournament, that's not too bad," Valley coach Roger Moriarty said.
Three days earlier, Valley and Warsaw played 18 holes at Stonehenge, with Warsaw shooting a 326 and Valley a 336, but those scores were shot on a nice, calm day. Saturday, a constant 14-mile per hour wind made things a little different.
"The wind was a big factor today," Moriarty said. "A 327 won and Wawasee's not a 327 team, they're probably more of a 310 or 305 team."
While the top three teams advance out of sectionals, the top three individuals from a non-qualifying team do as well. Advancing out individually at Saturday's match were Triton's T.J. Carpenter, Valley's Trey Stoll and Bremen's Max Kipfer.
"I got off to a slow start," Carpenter, who finished with a 77, said. "I made double on No. 2, and I know a lot of guys are going to make a big number on that hole, especially being into the wind today. I made double again on a par-5 on No. 6, and those are the scoring holes. Those are killers when you bogey on a par-5, but did manage to birdie on the other par-5s."
The trip to regionals will be Carpenter's third-straight, and after missing two straight cuts to advance to state, he's going to try something a little different this time around.
"I think I need to bag the driver for a little bit," he said. "I hit it far enough with my 3-wood and 3-iron, and there's not a lot of holes there that are 400 yards. If I can hit a 3-iron and keep the short irons in my hand, I can score well on those holes."
As far as the teams go, Wawasee and Warsaw were both at Orchard Ridge a year ago, where 40-50 mph wind gusts were present. However, in 2007 it was Warsaw that had the experienced team, which isn't the case this time.
"If we play our best, could things will happen," Barkey said. "If we play like we did today, it will probably end."
Wawasee enters the regional with No. 6 ranking in the state, but that doesn't mean too much once teams tee off.
"I hope it's not windy Thursday," Coverstone said. "But we'll take whatever the conditions are."
