Sep. 6—OTTUMWA — It’s not exactly the way Chase Thompson would draw up a birdie.
“I had to hit a provisional ball on a hole where there’s not even out-of-bounds on the perimeter of it,” Thompson said.
Thompson’s errant tee shot on the ninth hole of the Ottumwa Invitational boys golf tournament crossed through the fairway of the neighboring eighth hole and was headed towards the bushes that separate the Ottumwa Golf and Social Club to East Golf Avenue. With a few more bounces and rolls, Thompson would have needed to play that provisional ball with an original tee shot that would have been out of bounds.
“I was praying as I was walking over there,” Thompson said. “It was not a fun walk.”
Fortunately for the Ottumwa junior, the ball managed to stop just a few feet shy of the bushes, giving Thompson a chance to hit his second shot back across the eight fairway through a line of trees to the ninth green. The ball made it cleanly through, coming to rest on the fringe of the green leaving Thompson with a putt he was just hoping to get close for a par save.
“I looked at (Burlington junior) Tomas (Rascon) and I told him there’s no way this goes in,” Thompson said. “I just wanted to lag it up there.”
The ball did more than lag, hitting the flagstick and dropping in the hole for a closing birdie closing out a season-best round of 75 for Thompson nearly giving the OHS junior medalist honors in his home tournament. Des Moines Roosevelt senior Elliott Cataldi used a string of birdies on the back nine to post a career-low round of 74, edging Thompson by a single stroke for the top individual honors.
“I was just coming into the day hoping to get first on our team, not first overall,” Cataldi said. “That’s the best I’ve played a back nine. I was two-under back there. I don’t know how I did it. I just put it all together and it worked out.
“It’s going to take awhile for this to sink in. I’ve never won an individual title. There are some really good teams here. I had to get a little lucky, but it was a good round. I’m really happy that it worked out like that.”
Cataldi’s round of 74 allowed Roosevelt to edge Ottumwa by 10 strokes in the tournament, finishing fourth with a score of 336. The Bulldogs, who will see Roosevelt two more times during the regular season including the Iowa Alliance Conference tournament in Des Moines on Sept. 26, returned from a 19-day break posting a team score of 346 with windy, dry conditions adding to the difficulty of a tough Fox Run Golf Course track.
“The wind was crazy. There were 30-mile-an-hour gusts at times,” Ottumwa head boys golf coach Kyle Creamer said. “You also had to deal with cross winds on most of the holes. It made it difficult, not that this is an easy course to begin with.”
Dallas Center-Grimes collected its third win in five tournaments, posting a team score of 309 edging Little Hawkeye Conference rival Norwalk by six strokes. Indianola finished third with a team score of 320 in a tournament where the top 12 golfers finished with four shots of each other.
“There’s a lot of confidence that you gain from a day like today,” Thompson said. “At the beginning of the round, I made a long putt for a par save on the 10th hole. I had a couple struggles on the front nine, but to end the round the way I did with a couple of birdies helps a lot.
“Anything is possible in this game. You’re going to have your ups and your going to have your downs. There were a few mistakes here and there, but we can work to minimize those.”
Dominick Rath was able to take advantage of the drier conditions to set up three birdies during his round, posting a season-best 85 for Ottumwa’s second-lowest score of the day. The Bulldog junior had mixed results with his short game, costing Rath a chance to post an even lower score.
“The conditions were able to play more to my favor. I was able to use it more to my strengths,” Rath said. “Chipping is something I need to work on. That’s the big thing right now. Shots 100 yards and in are my biggest issue.”
Logan Storto posted a score of 92 for the Bulldogs, two shots ahead of Milo Canny. Carter Burton brought in a score of 101 for Ottumwa while Ethan Reynolds rounded out the day for the OHS varsity with a round of 116.
Gavin Monaghan led the Ottumwa junior varsity with a round of 107, lowering his season-best score by 10 strokes. Ashton Grace added a score of 113 for the Bulldog JV.
“We had a late scratch to our line-up that kind of through a few kids for a loop. They didn’t expect to be playing in the spots they wound up playing in,” Creamer said. “Gavin was not aware he was going to be playing with the varsity kids. To come out and make the improvement he did was really impressive.”
Ottumwa returns to the course next Tuesday for an Iowa Alliance triangular hosted by Waterloo East. The Bulldogs and Des Moines East will face the Trojans at Gates Park Golf Course starting at 3:30 p.m.
“Every time you play golf, you can always find something different you want to work on,” Creamer said. “Our big weaknesses that we found during the first four meets of the season, we really corrected those over the past two weeks. The scores really reflected that.”
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.