golfDad90

1st Ryle 2nd CovCath 3rd Boone County Medalist - Steve Rickels from Holy Cross - 77 2nd - Andrew Desmarais from Ryle - 79 Other 2 individual qualifiers (in addition to Rickels) - Stan Zajac from Dixie and Austin Thomas from Boone. Only two scores in the 70s. Pins were tucked. Greens were soft but fast. Wind picked up on the back 9. Many scores over 100.

CovCath won the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Tourney on Monday - at Hickory Sticks. Ryle took 2nd - 7 strokes behind CovCath. http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080923/SPT0302/809230382/ 7th Regional is next Monday at Kenton County Willows - the next battle between CovCath and Ryle is next Monday. It will be close between Ryle and CovCath - they should both qualify for state.

I like Zach Butler and Dunbar but I think that Scott County is a sleeper in Region 9. I look for them to qualify for state. Medalist in that region will interesting! But I digress from the topic of this thread. Other teams to note in Region 9: Henry Clay, Lexington Catholic, Lexington Christian, and Paul Dunbar.

Scott County burned up the course at Eagle Creek this past Saturday. Casey Mingua medalled - shot 3 under 66. Highest score on the team was 73. Team total was 275 (1 under). I saw Casey play - great kid!

Cody Martin took an 8 on the par-5 last hole. Andrew Desmarais didn't play. Jordan Erlewine took a 42 - not his normal. Alan Flood exceeded expectations by shooting 39. Andrew Kendall also shot 39 and it's good to see him back. Still, the score stands - CovCath definitively beat Ryle. But, it's a 9-hole match, which is not a very good indicator imho.

9 hole match on 9/17 at Kenton County Willows (site of this year's regional) CovCath 159 Ryle 166 http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080918/SPT0302/809180348/

My son adapts well to some courses and can score decently well on the 3rd or so time playing it. Other courses are much more of a challenge. Mt Sterling Country Club qualifies as one of the "you need to play it 10 times" due to the difficult greens. Bowling Green Country Club has types of grass that you don't see as much in Kentucky (Bermuda?) so you need to play it to understand how the club passes through their rough. I would say that you need to play Bowling Green several times (3-4) in order to get close to "minimizing" your score out there. Actually, having the state tournament at Bowling Green every year is helpful if you're a junior or senior and have played it in past years. But, looking at the past medalists (Case Cochran and Travis Thompson), you could say that there isn't that much of an advantage to local players. At the end of the day, the better players score well no matter the course. However, at a team level, there's probably a 4 or 5 stroke advantage to local teams. In my heart, I believe the tournament should be moved around the state. I really like having competitions at our home course - we get a 3-4 stroke advantage per player.

And I've heard that Bowling Green can get the volunteers they need to run the event. Whoever told me that implied that it was difficult to get the volunteers in other parts of the state. With that, I think it's a dis-service to the kids to have the tourney at the same course each year. I do understand that benjamins talk. Even though Bowling Green High School had an excellent team last year, I think they definitely had an advantage playing on a home course. There's another debate in whether Marshall County should have been disqualified - but won't go there here.

My son's team never gets school transportation. One or more of the kids or one of the parents drive. The coach drives his own car - usually with no kids. At our old school, the coach would occasionally drive a kid or two (it was a private school).

I HATE to see that kind of behavior. A couple of years ago, my son played in the Musselman-Dunne Tour Championship. One of the kids in his group was a hot head and was cussing and finally hammer-threw his putter about 20 yards. I found an official and told him what happened. The next hole, the official took the entire group aside and chewed them out - - not at all what I intended, but my son knew he didn't do anything wrong. In a high school tournament, a player had to back to the tee due to a lost ball. He then hit from the wrong tee. I kindly let the coach know and said I was telling just him. He blew me off and felt like I was butting in where I shouldn't. I have very little respect for that school even though it is were Drew is from. I think you need to go to the coach and not the player. If the coach doesn't handle, then the choices are to ignore or go to the tour official. I think you need to leave it with the coach.

Steve Flesch Invitational at Boone Links Ryle 311 (2nd in team competition) CovCath 326 St X (Louisville) B team shot 305 and won the tournament.

He did move to Florida but moved back in August. Lives now in the same area he did before - new home though.

Just received the team line-up and tee times: Front 9 7:15-7:51 George Rogers Clark 7:15-7:51 Covington Catholic White 7:15-7:51 Christian Acad. Louisv 7:15-7:51 Trinity 8:00-8:36 Covington Catholic Blue 8:00-8:36 Lexington Christian Acad 8:00-8:36 Moeller 8:00-8:36 Taylor County Back 9 7:15-7:51 St. Henry 7:15-7:51 North Hardin 7:15-7:51 Lexington Catholic 7:15-7:51 Ashland Paul Blazer 8:00-8:36 Bishop Watterson 8:00-8:36 St. X - KY 8:00-8:36 St. X - OH 8:00-8:36 Ryle

I talked to Jared after the round - I "think" he shot 79 or 81. It's always great to see he and his Dad, Randy. By the way, Ryle had a 75 from Cody Martin, a 77 from Jordan Erlewine, an 81 from Andrew Desmarais, then two scores in the 90's by the two freshmen. Long day for a lot of kids - particularly on the greens. The Dunbar coach lamented about the number of 3 putts his team had on their first hole (4 as I remember).

Anyone have info on who's playing in the Steve Flesch Invitational at Boone Links this coming Saturday? In past years, CovCath (host), Ryle, Henry Clay, St X (Louisville, St X (Cincinnati) have played. Any predictions?

Yes - wild green. No place to bail out on 15 - saw one kid putt the ball off the green from the back right. Saw a lot of kids miss the green short. One coach told me his team lost 8 shots to par on that hole last year. I would say the course will be remembered as having very difficult greens - hard (didn't hold), lots of break, and lots of variation within each green. I'd say that you'd have to play that course 5-10 times to really score well. I saw 2 kids try to drive #13. The first, from Dunbar, pushed it and got lucky when it landed near cart path on 14. The second, Cody Martin, came up just short and made par. I estimated it around 325 yards tee, direct to, green.

I was there - were you too? First, I greatly respect Tom and what he does. Tom showed up to speed up play. He stood at the front of the tee box so the next group wouldn't hit. Tanner was up first in the next group. Tom moved a little to the right side of the tee box, still 5 yards in front of Tanner. I was watching Tanner and didn't think he was going to hit the ball as he has a different pre-shot routine. Well, I was wrong. Tom was clearly scared that the ball was going to him -- which I understand. The shot was probably 8 yards or so to his left - right at the pin though. Tom started by saying something like "what's wrong with you". My assessment is that Tom created some ambiguity by moving to the right side of the tee box. With that, Tanner really should have waited until given the go-ahead. I do think Tom over-reacted a bit. Tanner's Dad was sitting by the tee and talked about it the rest of the day. I'm interested in your view.

From Kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/sports/story/515951.html Individuals— 1 Ethan Faulkner (Elliott Co.) 36-35—71 1 Ben Simpson (Henry Clay) 37-34—71 3 Dagan Abdon (Greenup Co.) 38-34—72 4 Danny Lattner (Lexington Catholic) 38-35—73 5 Tanner Mobley (Paul Dunbar) 39-36—75 6 Cody Martin (Ryle) 40-35—75 Congrats to Tanner Mobley who did well despite getting his tail chewed by Rules Official on #15

Wow! Way overestimated the team's talent and the difficulty of the course -- which was hinted many times in this thread. Ryle shot 327. Henry Clay shot 303 and I think won. Dunbar shot around 305. Shocker of the day - Zach Butler was 1 over going into his 16th hole - made 10 on hole #1 and shot 79 or 80. Ben Simpson from Henry Clay shot even par 71 and was low in when I left.

Drew does a great job for the kids and the course will be well marked. But still, I would give an advantage to the kids with local course knowledge. Ian Danis should do very well then.

Cody Martin plays for Ryle and has verbally committed to UK for next year. Ryle's top 3 (Cody Martin, Andrew Desmarais, and Jordan Erlewine) are top 10 in the state and could finish 1-2-3 in any tournament. Alas, it takes 4 scores. Dixie Heights won't likely challenge for the top 10. Grant County has done well in Northern Kentucky but lost one of their best players (Jeremy Martin) to graduation. Like Covington Catholic, they seem to do well every year. Anything can happen in a one-day tournament. IMHO, the top seniors in the state are Zach Butler, Blanton Farmer, and Cody Martin.

Jordan Erlewine is enrolled at Ryle and has competed in a couple of tournament / matches. While the top 3 for Ryle (Cody Martin, Andrew Desmarais, Erlewine) have played well, they still need a 4th. Right now, Chris Lally is 4. #5 and #6 are freshmen (Blake Hamilton and Chris Desmarais). How Lally does will be key - has the talent but hasn't played a lot.

Ryle should do well. Cody Martin had a great summer. Cody won the US Junior Amateur Qualifier and a PGA Junior Series event in NC, then made the cut at the US Junior in Alabama. Andrew Desmarais played well too - he won the Cincinnati Junior Met and the 7-Up Championshiop. Chris Lally can score in the 70s. Blake Hamilton is one of the top freshmen in the area. Will Jordan Erlewine return? CovCath is poised again. Nick George won a Musselman-Dunne event. Mickey Sutton is strong. Andrew Kendall seems to be coming back after a swing change. Ben Johnston has played well in the past. Michael Mahan has been quiet but can be strong too. CovCath seems to play better in the fall than in the summer. CovCath is #1 in the Coaches Poll. Beechwood might be the surprise. Parker Adams finished 2nd in 7-Up Championship. Drew Kinman has been improving a lot. Holy Cross has Steve Rickels who has been very solid. Blake Trimpe finished 6th in the 7-Up Championship. It will be a fun season.

Cody Martin (class of 2009) is playing great this summer: Won PGA Junior Series event in North Carolina 2nd Hudson Junior Invitational in Ohio Medalist US Junior Amateur Qualifier in Cincinnati Won Kentucky Junior Am

My son plays table tennis during the winter -- it's great for eye-hand coordination.