Bulldogs Take Third At Mattoon Invitational

MATTOON -- Effingham St. Anthony High School's boys golf squad was back in action Friday and Saturday in the Mattoon Invitational at Meadowview Golf Course. The tournament was canceled Friday and rescheduled Saturday as two separate tourneys.

The Bulldogs captured third place while Joe Powell took fifth individually.

"We were in the middle of things when the rains came and washed out the round after 13 holes," said Coach Phil Zaccari. "Due to the format of the tournament, the invitational was then separated into two separate tournaments and we participated in the one at Meadowview Golf Course Saturday."

Winning the event was Springfield with a 314 followed by Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin 318, St. Anthony 319,  Murphysboro 328, Mount Carmel 330, Benton 332, Mahomet-Seymour 332, Glenwood 334, Rantoul 341, Champaign St. Thomas More 345, Champaign Central 346, Maroa-Forsyth 354, Urbana 357, Taylroville 358, Paris 368, Decatur St. Teresa 370, Springfield Lanphier 387 and Springfield Southeast 448.

"We definitely feel that we should have won this event," said Zaccari. "For the most part we played very well from tee to green but our short game really let us down. We handled the windy conditions fairly well but had trouble around the greens. I counted at least 12 putts inside four feet that we did not make and another five times where we did not get up and down from the fringe.That is at least 17 strokes we gave away. And, yet we were able to finish third. This is part of the game we will be spending a lot of time on in the final few weeks of the season.

"Senior Joe Powell started slow, but then played steady through the middle to finish tied for fifth with a 77. Sophomore Connor Greene also played steady to shoot 79. This is one we let get away, we will fix these things and be ready for our tournament at Windsor next  week."

Medalist for the event was Mount Carmel's Chase Whitsman with a 73.

St. Anthony -- Joe Powell 39-38 -- 77, Connor Greene 40-39 -- 79, Garrett Hixenbaugh 39-41 -- 80, Dalton Anderson 39-44 -- 83, Jack Niebrugge 41-42 -- 83, Cole Buehnerkemper 47-43 -- 90