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Southampton's Ronan Brady RON ESPOSITO
Southampton's Liam Blackmore RON ESPOSITO
After a first-round bye thanks to winning League VIII, the No 5. Southampton boys golf team went ahead and took care of No. 12 Bayport-Blue Point, 9-0, in the second round of the Section XI Team Tournament on October 30.
The Mariners reward? A play date with No. 4 Ward Melville on its home course of St. Georges Golf and Country Club in East Setauket on November 2. While they happened to be seeded fourth in this year’s tournament, the Patriots have been, for many years, a perennial powerhouse in boys golf, and no matter what seed they are, they’re always a threat to win it all.
Tim Schreck and his crew from Southampton knew it was going to be a tough task to take down Ward Melville on its home course where many of the Mariners never played before, and it proved to be just as daunting as they thought it would be.
Ward Melville defeated Southampton, 8-1, with the Mariners’ lone victory coming from senior Liam Blackmore. Built in 1917 by the famed golf course architect Devereux Emmet, and restored by Gil Hanse, St. George’s, according to its website, is known for its firm fairways, numerous bunkers and captivating green complexes. Schreck said it was a tough course, but at the same time, his players had an off day.
But it was just days before when his team shot a 182 at Southampton Golf Club that would have beaten probably just about any other school they faced that day.
“Me and all the boys agreed that if we played [Ward Melville] on our course, it would have been a different match,” Schreck said. “This is probably the only tournament in sports where the higher seed is at such a disadvantage because of home-course advantage. When you go to someone’s basketball court, it’s the same basketball court. If you’re playing on someone’s baseball field, it’s still a baseball field. In golf, when you get into these types of tournaments, you have such a tremendous advantage playing on your home course because most of the time the other team hasn’t played on it before, and even if they have, they still don’t know it like the home team does.
“Ward Melville’s course was a tough little course. We had a tough time on the greens and a tough time lining up our shots, but in all honestly, we didn’t bring our ‘A’ game,” he added. “We did the match before, but Ward Melville did what it had to do. It outshot us all around. We played like most visiting teams do on their course. It proved to be too much to handle.”
The Patriots also proved to be county champions once again. After defeating Southampton, Ward Melville dispatched top-seed Riverhead in the semifinals on Monday, this time at a neutral site at Spring Lake Golf Club in Middle Island, then it defeated No. 7 Northport directly following to win the entire tournament.
Despite the loss to Ward Melville, Schreck called it a great season for his team.
“It was awesome, just overall an outstanding season,” he said. “Being in the tournament, making it to the final eight and placing fifth place or sixth place, whatever it was, the boys have a lot to be proud of. They represented our league and themselves really well. Getting to this tournament and playing these big schools is a tall order, but overall they saw a tremendous amount of success and I’m happy with the way the boys played. Like I told them, there can only be one team who finishes the season with a victory. That’s just how sports goes.”
Schreck is expecting to have a strong team again next fall with only two seniors graduating in Blackmore and Ronan Brady. Next fall will mark the first time in seven years or so that Schreck won’t have a Blackmore on the team after Jack graduated last year.
“We’ll have two huge pairs of shoes to fill. Liam and Ronan were some of the best golfers I’ve had in quite some time for a lot of reasons,” he said. “But Ethan [Heuer] has already accomplished a lot and he’ll be a junior next season. Then we have our two upcoming seniors in Cooper Tracy and Sam Conklin, so we’ll move forward with what we’ve got.”
Westhampton Beach was seeded 11th in the tournament and easily defeated No. 22 Shoreham-Wading River, 9-0, in the first round on October 26. Both Zach Berger and county champ Owen Jessop shot a 36 at Westhampton Country Club. But then the ’Canes lost, 6.5-3.5, to No. 6 Sachem at Middle Island Country Club on October 30. Berger shot a 36, Jessop a 40 and Reid Groth a 41.
No. 14 East Hampton defeated No. 19 Hauppauge, 206-221, in team total on October 26, but then lost, 206-214, to No. 3 Huntington at Crescent Club on October 30. Huntington reached the semifinals, where it lost to Northport.
Pierson grabbed one of the final wild-card bids into the tournament and was seeded 23rd. It lost its first-round match, 7-2, to No. 10 Half Hollow Hills East at Bethpage on October 26. Both Adam Drohan and Harry Ambrose each won their matches with 41s.
