South Bend Tribune

JAKE BROWN

SOUTH BEND — Tom Hauch knows how to get a golf season started.

During his second practice round of the year, Hauch — a senior at Adams and the Eagles' top player — did something nobody at Erskine Golf Course can remember being done before.

Hauch took out a driver on the 330-yard, par-4 seventh hole, bombing his tee shot over the group in front of him with a 20 or 30 mph wind at his back.

He never saw where the ball ended up, but he would never have guessed anyway.

It ended up in the hole.

"There was a pretty big tailwind," Hauch said. "I generally can't hit it that far. The assistant coach came back, I didn't actually see it go in. I thought I maybe hit someone up there. I wasn't sure. Then he said it went in."

While it was Hauch's first career hole-in-one, he's done plenty during the last couple years to prove his game is among the area's best.

He qualified as an individual for the state finals last year but missed the cut.

This year, he'll lead an Adams team that coach Pat King called the program's deepest in about a decade.

"Tommy's gonna lead us," King said. "It's probably been 10 years since we had a team that has a chance to be as good as this team. Unfortunately, we're still the fourth best team in the conference."

With the way the weather has been in the early season, Adams has just been getting in its first matches this week.

The Eagles play host for the Kaeppler Invitational, one of the year's most notable local tournaments, Friday at Morris Park Country Club.

All the area teams will be in attendance, including Northern Indiana Conference heavyweights Marian, Penn and St. Joseph's.

"The Kaeppler is a good one," Hauch said. "It's local, there's no traveling, you get to miss school on Friday and the winner is in the community spotlight. It's probably my favorite tournament."