Patriots drive home second tournament win

Junior+Jaiden+Ronke+prepares+to+take+putt+on+green+at+the+Oak+Hills+Invitational.+He+shot+an+82+on+the+challenging+course.

Ally Seevers

Junior Jaiden Ronke prepares to take putt on green at the Oak Hills Invitational. He shot an 82 on the challenging course.

Dylan Wiese, Sports Editor

Stepping on to the Tara Hills Golf Course the Patriot’s Boys Golf Team could feel the pressure as they looked for their second tournament win of the season at the Bellevue East Invite. However, the team took on this pressure and grabbed their 2nd tournament victory of the year joining their earlier win at the Omaha Northwest Invite. 

The team victory was not the only success of the day as the team had two golfers place in the top four as senior David Carey placed 2nd overall with a score of 72 and junior Jaiden Ronke placed 4th overall with a score of 74.

“I try not to worry about scores too much during the day,” Carey said. “It just gets in my head and I don’t play as well but it felt really good when I came in from the 18th hole and saw how well we did. We all shot really well.”

“Going into the day I felt good,” Ronke said. “I got there early and rolled in a couple of putts on the green and figured them out so I putted well. I was also shooting the ball really well with my irons and putts really started falling on the back nine and everything just went well overall.”

This truly was a team effort however as they had the lowest team score as the entire team shot a combined score of 316.

“I didn’t know what the other scores were looking like,” Ronke said. “We just had to go out there and execute well.”

“I was not aware of what the scores were looking like until we got into the clubhouse but I was feeling pretty good about them,” junior Harrison Clements said.

“I just wanted to go out there and do my best,” Carey said. “I hadn’t been shooting as well as I wanted to recently so I just wanted to go out there and shoot the best I could for the team.”

The team had a lot to celebrate as a team after an impressive victory.

“I was pretty calm, but also it’s kind of just like a little bit of a relief because I haven’t been able to perform at that level in a long time, all the way back since sophomore year,” Carey said.

“We felt really good because that was the second tournament we have won this year in only five tournaments,” Clements said.

“My team got done pretty early so we were able to go sit in the clubhouse and watch the scores come in live,” Ronke said. “I was pretty excited when I saw my score was one of the lowest, so when everyone came in, my heart got racing a little bit.”

The Patriots will look to keep the strong season going all the way until the state tournament held May 23 and 24 at the Norfolk Country Club.