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CommunityClose, but no cigar
Calvert, Patuxent golf teams edged by Chopticon
Friday, Sept. 5, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL
Patuxent senior Katy Gradle sinks a long putt on the fifth hole Wednesday, part of her 35.
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Chopticon (3-1, 3-1 SMAC) had three players in the 30s and went on to shoot a 161, two strokes better than Calvert and three better than host Patuxent.
‘‘I just think they played as well as they could and that was the difference,” he said. ‘‘I have a seasoned crew, so I came in very confident we could win.”
‘‘It was the most closely-contested match I’ve ever seen,” Patuxent coach Kevin Conlon said, when announcing the final scores.
The Braves were led by Bobby Ehrhardt and Kyle King, who each shot a 3-over-par 39. Mitchell Seifert turned in a 40.
‘‘I played better than I did last week; I hit the ball a whole lot better,” the younger Ehrhardt said. ‘‘But my putting still needs work. I made too many mistakes out there.”
Ehrhardt said shooting par the first three holes set the stage for his round.
‘‘It was a good confidence booster, because I really don’t play this course a lot,” he said. ‘‘It was nice to get off to a good start.”
King made par on five holes and birdied the 184-yard, par-3 fourth hole.
‘‘I missed the green to the right and thought I was deep,” he said, ‘‘but made my putt from the fringe.”
Bryan McHale made his first varsity start for Calvert (3-2, 3-2) a memorable one. Playing in the No. 6 slot, the junior turned in a surprising 40 to erase a three-stroke Patuxent lead and give the Cavaliers second place. McHale birdied Nos. 2 and 8 and added three pars.
‘‘I wasn’t expecting that from him,” Calvert coach Jeremy Kurutz said of McHale, who took six strokes off his average. ‘‘You’re thinking he’s going to play tight and be nervous and he shoots the best round of his life. I’m so proud of him to be able to make such an accomplishment.”
Matthew Fox shot a team-best 36 for the Cavaliers, thanks to a pair of birdies and five pars.
‘‘I thought I shot pretty well,” said Fox, a junior. ‘‘My chipping was helping me a lot and I stayed in the fairways.”
Fox said the turning point of his round was birdying the 151-yard, par-3 second hole.
‘‘It sat on the lip for a second or two before it went in,” he said. ‘‘I felt really good about myself for that. That was definitely a confidence booster.”
‘‘I’m very happy with [the team’s] performance with this being so early in the season,” Kurutz said. ‘‘I’m hoping we can get it together and be even better.”
Patuxent (1-3, 1-3), which lopped 18 strokes off from the previous week, ultimately came up just a stroke short to county rival Calvert.
‘‘Of course I’m a little disappointed, but this is exactly what you hope for in a match,” said Conlon, a first-year coach. ‘‘You want it to come down to the last shot. As coaches and instructors, you preach that in golf every shot counts and today’s match proves that. It literally came down to that last putt on that last hole.”
Patuxent’s loss overshadowed a match-best 1-under-par 35 by senior Katy Gradle, despite playing on a fractured toe.
Gradle, who suffered the injury three days ago when she was stepped on by someone wearing high heels, recorded three birdies and four pars.
‘‘I had to change my swing a little bit so the pressure wouldn’t get on it,” said Gradle, who added it was the walking and follow-through that caused her the most pain.
‘‘It was an astonishing round of golf; probably my proudest moment as a coach,” said Conlon, who found out about the injury the day before the match. ‘‘She practiced every day without so much as a whimper, without so much as an excuse. A 35 in any circumstances is an excellent score, but to do that with an injury is a bit Tiger-esque.”
Gradle birdied No. 1 and added pars on Nos. 2 and 3. After a bogey on No. 4, she birdied No. 5 and the 510-yard, par-5 sixth hole.
‘‘It was awesome, it was really great,” she said of her round. ‘‘I enjoyed who I was playing with and it’s always a good start to start off well. From then on I had a lot of fun out there. The coach has done a lot of drills with us and I think that’s really helped my short game and everything.”
‘‘Is [taking that many strokes off] a sign that we did that much better this week or didn’t perform as well as we wanted to last week,?” Conlon asked. ‘‘I think it’s a combination of both and it’s a testament to this team’s ability to want to improve.”
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