CARMEL
Noah Gillard made a birdie putt for the ages on the 18th hole. Unfortunately for the senior and his Center Grove teammates, Carmel’s Nick Dentino had a much shorter one right after that.
Dentino’s par putt after a magnificent save from out of the bunker helped the Greyhounds fend off a late charge by the Trojans on Wednesday and hold on for a one-stroke victory and a state championship.
It was a disheartening end to a dramatic final day that featured numerous momentum swings on the final holes after a 90-minute rain delay interrupted the round with all of the contenders on the final seven holes.
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“The kids kept it under control,” Center Grove coach Matt Rodman said. “We finished really well, finished with lots of pars and birdies on 18. It just came down to (Dentino) made a really good up and down out of the bunker.”
Carmel finished with a 25-over-par total of 601 in a tough scoring tournament, with the Trojans right behind at 602 and Zionsville in third at 606. Had Dentino missed his putt, Center Grove would have won the title via the tiebreaker.
Gillard’s birdie on 18 — aided by a fortuitous bounce off of a young fan — not only briefly gave Center Grove a glimmer of hope as a team, but it also forced a playoff for individual medalist honors with Logan Ryan of Fort Wayne Dwenger. Ryan wound up winning on the first playoff hole against Gillard, who had to tee it up right after watching Carmel celebrate its championship.
“I didn’t know I was in a playoff,” Gillard said. “It was definitely tough to brush that off, because I knew our team and community wanted us to win a state championship, but I just had to refocus really quick.”
Gillard shot a 1-over-par 73 on Wednesday to finish at 145 for the tournament. Fellow senior Sam Jean, who joined Gillard on the All-State team, tied for 17th overall at 151 after a second-round 78.
Sophomore Alex Heck matched Gillard’s 73 out of the No. 4 position in round two, shaking off a first-day 79 to finish in a tie for 20th individually.
“I felt more comfortable since it was the second day, obviously,” Heck said, “and I liked the position we were in, four strokes back, easy to make up.”
Ultimately, sustaining any kind of momentum was tough for all three of the contending teams.
A rough start briefly knocked the Trojans down into third place, seven strokes back of Carmel and one behind Zionsville, after everyone had gotten through the sixth hole. But the Greyhounds started to come back to the field, and a ninth-hole birdie by Alex Heck helped pull the Trojans back into a first-place tie at 14 over par with the Eagles eight shots back in third heading to the back side.
Center Grove was down by two with the final group putting on the 12th green when the air horns sounded, signaling a delay in play due to lightning in the area. The respite may have been a boon to some struggling players, but for Gillard — who was 1 under par for the day and the tournament at the time — it was certainly not.
“I was playing well and then the rain delay kind of iced me a little bit,” he said.
But while he endured a rough bogey-double bogey stretch in 13 and 14, Carmel’s players were canceling those dropped strokes out with hiccups of their own. As the players worked through the final holes, spectators feverishly asked one another for updates — which were hard to come by, at least for most people, with the online scoring system only adding scores every three holes.
“I’m a math teacher,” Rodman said with a smile. “I knew where we stood every time.”
Thus, he knew that his team was down two when Gillard was in the 18th fairway, fueling the decision to pull out a driver and go for the green in two.
The Trojans came up one stroke shy of a repeat title, but while some of the players were understandably inconsolable afterward, Rodman was able to keep his chin up.
“My only emotion is pride,” he said. “This group of kids, all the way from 1 to 16, I’m just proud of how hard we’ve worked all season. I know we came up one stroke short, but the impact that the two seniors (Gillard and Jean) have had on this golf program will be felt for many, many years to come.”
