Ben Reese recaps some of the SOL's recent golf highlights. The notebook does not take into account matches played Wednesday, Setp. 25.
By Ben Reese
It is pretty safe to say that the Council Rock North golf team has not had a week like the one it just went through.
For a team that had not lost more than one match in a season for the last five years, losing two in one week had to come as a bit of a shock. And it dropped the Indians out of first place in the Suburban One League National Conference behind Pennsbury and tied them with Council Rock South.
However, the Indians rebounded with a strong victory over the Falcons at Jericho National in their second meeting of the year on Tuesday. The 192-196 win for North puts it right behind Pennsbury in the National race.
The first loss came against Rock South, a team that North had beaten every year since 2009. The Indians' last loss to the then Peter Eiler-led Golden Hawks came in 2008, 201-215, at Spring Mill Country Club.
With a nod to Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again.
At Spring Mill, South edged North 201-202 as Lukas Clark, Tom Townsend and Justin Abrams led the way with 39s and Griffin Smith added a 41 and Mike Barychewsky a 43. For North, Madelein Herr shot a 38, Matt Palmieri a 40, Ryan Conner and Erica Herr 41s and Matt Delehey 42.
The next day, the Indians traveled to Yardley Country Club to play Pennsbury, their rival for the top spot in the conference for quite a few years. Things didn't turn out any better as the Falcons took a 199-208 win.
Vinay Ramesh, who has been hot lately, topped Pennsbury with a 2-under 34 and Jackie Rogowicz matched par at 36. Hank Kaufmann contributed a 41 and Alex Simon and Craig Meschel each shot 44. Erica Herr was tops for North with a 2-over 38 followed by Ryan Conner and Palmieri at 42 and Madelein Herr and Lauren Muhlbauer at 43.
Bouncing back from its two-loss week on Tuesday against the Falcons, Council Rock North got an even-par round from Austin Fuglestad (36) with Madelein Herr shooting 37, Erica Herr 38, Matt Palmieri 40 and Ryan Conner 41. For the Falcons, Ramesh shot 37, Rogowicz 38, Kaufmann 39, Eric Hermann 40- and Meschel 42.
The victory over Pennsbury keeps the Indians in the running for the National crown. Pennsbury still has three matches left in its season, meeting Neshaminy, Council Rock South and Central Bucks West. Coouncil Rock North has only one, against William Tennent.
Hot:As mentioned before, Pennsbury's Vinay Ramesh has been playing lights-out golf lately. In the past two weeks, he has burned a couple of courses for par or better scores.
Obviously, the best was the 34 in the win over Council Rock North at Yardley Country Club. But he matched that with a 2-under 34 at Spring Mill Country Club in a win over Council Rock South.
He also added an even-par 35 at Yardley in the Falcons' win over William Tennent.
Strange but true:Looking through the scores from Sep. 12, it looked like a lot of golfers had some great rounds until you read a little further. Those rounds, while still excellent, came over eight holes or five holes.
Hatboro-Horsham's win over North Penn at Pinecrest lasted only eight holes. But when lightning ended the match, the Hatters' Tom Fisher was at 32 with a shot of at least hitting even-par 35.
Lightning also shortened Souderton's win over Central Bucks West at Lederach to only five holes. The Indians' Lenny Welch and the Bucks' Michalya Simeon were both averaging four shots per hole at 20 with Souderton's Josh Williams and West's Tyler Sokolis at 22 and the Indians' Jerry Meekins, Clay Anders and Dan Heilemann at 23.
How low can you go:While Pennsbury's Ramesh had a pair of sub-par rounds, the low round of the last two weeks goes to Wissahickon's Jalen Griffin. The Trojan senior fired a 2-under 32 over the par-34 front nine at Melrose Country Club in a win over Cheltenham.
Griffin wasn't the only one under par, however. Jackie Rogowicz of Pennsbury shot a 1-under 34 at Philmont Country Club in a win over Abington.
Tournament time:The Suburban One League championships are just around the corner. The boys will play on Monday, Sep. 30, at Five Ponds Golf Course, and the girls will play on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at LuLu Country Club.
Those tournaments will be followed by the District One tournament. On Monday, Oct. 7, the girls will play their first round at Gilbertsville Golf Club and the boys will play their opening round at Turtle Creek. The next day, Tuesday, Oct. 8, both the girls and boys will play their second round at Turtle Creek.
The Eastern Regional tournament will once again be played at Golden Oaks in Fleetwood. The one-round tournament will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
Heritage Hills in York will again host the PIAA championship. The two rounds will be on Monday, Oct. 21, and Tuesday, Oct. 22.
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