Indy Star

 

By Ted Schultz

 

The Carmel boys golfers lost only one regular-season match and were ranked in the top five in the state for most of last season.

The Greyhounds' dreams of a state title went by the wayside when they missed qualifying for the state meet by one stroke on a windy day at Players Club in the Muncie Central Regional. Carmel is using that as motivation to make another run in 2009.

"I thought last year if we'd have made it to state, we'd have been in the top five," said second-year Carmel coach Chad Carr. "We played our worst round of the year at regional. Our decision-making was not there, and our execution was not there.

"We were very disappointed and heartbroken by that, and it's our goal never to let that happen again. We want to be ready to play in any type of weather."

The Greyhounds certainly were ready Tuesday on another windy day. They fired 151 at Prairie View Golf Club to upset third-ranked Hamilton Southeastern (160) and Westfield (177).

Junior Connor O'Neal, who played No. 3 last season and qualified for the state meet as an individual, and junior Grant Meade carded 36 to tie for medalist honors.

"I'm expecting Connor to lead the team for the entire season," Carr said, "but with that said, I'm expecting other kids to step up and challenge him the entire season. I'm holding the kids accountable to be focused the entire time.

"We're putting kids in more situational circumstances during practices and having them get more repetitions with various shots and build their confidence with what we do at practice."

Meade is the only other Greyhound with significant varsity experience. He played in about half the varsity matches last season.

Junior Kevin Brown played in a couple of varsity matches. He and juniors Nathan Meuting and Tyler Zipes played in the lineup Tuesday.

Junior Mike Coyne, who played in a few varsity matches last season, and Brian Bondus, the lone senior, are battling for spots in the lineup, along with sophomores Jacob Coyle, Clay Taylor and Nick Whitten, and freshmen Tom English and Brady Sharkey.

"I think by the end of the season we'll have depth," Carr said. "We've made tremendous progress from the first day until now. We're kind of flying under the radar.

"We're just trying to come to practice every day, and our goal is to improve on something every practice. We're just holding ourselves to high expectations, despite being a young team. Nobody on the team is looking to next year. We're looking to see what we can do this year."