WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP — As heaters go, C.J. Dolan was on one for the ages on a dusty Friday afternoon during the Muskingum Valley League boys golf tournament at Jaycees.
Drought conditions in the Muskingum Valley since early summer have dried and hardened courses everywhere, adding another element to navigate for players seeking low scores.
But Dolan’s eye-popping 5-under-par 30 on the front nine set the pace as the Muskies aimed to win an outright Muskingum Valley League-Big School Division title.
In the Small School, West Muskingum’s Reid Lemity fired 70 and three others shot 83 or better as the Tornadoes posted 317 to win by four shots over Maysville (320).
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Muskies were cool under pressure
Dolan cooled after reaching 6 under with a birdie on No. 10. But his 2-under 69 helped the Muskies shoot 301 and top runner-up Sheridan by 10 shots.
He needed just 10 putts to maneuver through the first nine holes and had six one-putts in a row at one point.
“I had a streak of about five (birdies) in a row and got a lot up and downs on the front,” Dolan said. “Ten putts gets it done.”
It was the sort of roll that rarely happens in golf at any level, but especially with high schoolers. He was the first player to have a 5-under score on nine holes since Dylan Van Fossen, another Muskie, shot 31 on the front nine at Vista in 2015. West Muskingum’s Ryan Harmon and Morgan’s Shawn Shuster also reached the mark in league rounds.
“I stopped hitting greens after (No. 10), but I was feeling really good going into that back nine,” Dolan said. “I was pretty calm the whole round. Just a couple of bad swings and my putter cooled down a bit.”
Noah Dever closed with four straight birdies to shoot 70 for John Glenn and Hayden Gensor came in with 77, one of his best rounds of the year. Mason Williams added 85 out of the No. 5 hole to cap the scoring.
John Glenn and Sheridan entered the event tied for the division lead, after the Generals handed the Muskies their first league loss in four years earlier this season at EagleSticks. Just one shot separated them in that match.
Wyatt Satterfield and Liam Gutridge had 78s and Noah Wamer 79 for Sheridan, which had 311 and threw out No. 6 man Camdyn Packer’s 81 and No. 3 man Owen Cains’ 83.
Sheridan’s showing, with another balanced effort led by Canyon Daly’s 76, would have been good enough to win most years. But coach Chad Orecchio’s veteran Muskies have only gotten stronger since the loss.
“The pressure was on, but we’ve played in so many tournaments,” John Glenn coach Chad Orecchio said. “The Columbus stuff that we have done and last year being in Division I, we did a good job today of managing the golf course and bouncing back. (Dever) was 3-over at one time and shot 1-under.”
Both teams enter sectional play with high hopes. John Glenn is in a tightly packed Division II East District and Sheridan is one of the favorites in the Division I Southeast.
“I was a little nervous about the course, because you can catch a bad break out here in a hurry,” Orecchio said. “I just wanted us to get off to a fast start and kind of set the tone for everybody. Obviously, CJ and Noah played phenomenal as a 1-2 punch. They finished off what they have been doing all year, really.”
Tri-Valley (324), Meadowbrook (327), Crooksville (329), River View (349), New Lexington (369), Coshocton (374), Philo (376) and Morgan (418) rounded out the scoring.
Gutridge shines for West M in Small School three-peat
Lemity’s 70 was his best round of the season on a day that Nick Anton added 81 and Kyle Porter and Hayden Lambert posted 83s. Four teams broke 330, but the Tornadoes won for the third straight year.
Lemity said he was able to quickly adjust to the bounce-it-on approach to hitting greens.
“You can’t attack pins like you could last year or even earlier this summer,” Lemity said. “But I felt like I was able to attack some today. My putter felt good, my driver and irons felt good. I felt my whole game came together. … I felt like played really well, especially for these conditions.”
West also figures to be a bitter fight at the sectional and district. Lemity and Co. will be heading to Cadiz Country Club for their sectional on Monday, while John Glenn and Maysville are among the River Greens contingent, along with River View freshman Gavin Gress and teammate Caleb Kline.
“We are definitely going to get past sectional with us shooting 317 here, and we can all do better,” said Lemity, adding the team shot 305 in their practice round at Cadiz. “I think we can move on and get to state. We are more than capable. We all feel good up there.”
Gress never wavered from his plan
There were a collection of noteworthy scores in both divisions as 17 players shot 80 or better, something Lemity and Gress said were due partly to smooth-running greens and shorter approach shots into many of the par 4s.
In Gress’ cases, he canned the driver after two wayward tee shots in favor of eight consecutive 3-woods. It was a commitment to keep himself in favorable positions with his approaches.
The result was a back-nine charge.
The newcomer was overall medalist with 68 as the Black Bears shot their best round of the season. He overcame a six-shot deficit.
“There were a lot of birdie holes left, so I thought I could make a comeback,” Gress said. “You just can’t give up in those situations. You just have to keep playing. It actually takes a lot of pressure off when someone is up that much because you can just play your game.”
The key, he said, was staying in proper position.
“It was definitely a challenge to figure out where to land the ball,” Gress said. “I had 40 yards in on 11, landed it short and it still ran 20 feet by. It was difficult, for sure.”
Best of the rest
Crooksville’s Bo White added 72 and teammate Gabe Sandefur had 80; Maysville’s Hoyt Dodson carded 78 and Cade Pickrell, Ethan Wright and Adyn Huff 81; Coshocton’s Bransyn Dawson shot 1-under 34 on the front and finished at 78; Kline posted 77; Meadowbrook No. 3 man Kam Winnett had 75; Tri-Valley’s Xander Smalley carded 80 and Nash Baughman 82; Philo’s A.J. Layton posted 81 and Tanner Brookover 84 and New Lexington’s Rocco Stanton posted 88.
Dever and Gress were in a neck-and-neck fight for Player of the Year entering Friday, and Dever’s Match Performance Rating of 0.44 finished ahead of Gress’ 0.70.
They headlined the All-MVL list, which also included Dolan (1.0), Lemity (1.14), White (1.9), Kline (2.0), Daly (3.7), Satterfield (3.8), Tri-Valley’s Jou Chow (3.9) and Wamer (3.9) in the top 10, with the final five featuring Dodson (4.5), Smalley (4.4), Cains (3.9), Pickrell (4.7) and Wright (4.9).
The top 15 players in MPR were named All-MVL.
sblackbu@gannett.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Muskingum Valley League boys golf finals roundup
