10/05/2006

District duel at The Leelanau Club

No. 1 TCSF, No. 5 Norse set to face off

By MARK URBAN

murban@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — The favorite according to the state rankings is Traverse City St. Francis.

The home course and results from earlier this season point to Suttons Bay.

The top-ranked Gladiators and No. 5 Norse will play in the Division 4 golf district today at The Leelanau Club at Bahle Farms.

Suttons Bay won three of their four meetings with the Gladiators.

"As close as the two teams are, given Suttons Bay's course knowledge, they're the favorite on Thursday," St. Francis coach Jim Hornyak said.

"I think the fact that we're at the Leelanau Club has to make us the favorite," Suttons Bay coach Todd Hursey said. "But we also have a great deal of respect for St. Francis and they're definitely capable of beating us. We know we'll need some good scores on Thursday."

Area golf teams will need to finish no worse than sixth at the districts to qualify for next week's regional.

The top six individuals not on qualifying teams also move on.

The top three teams and top three individuals not on the qualifying teams will tee it up at the state championships Oct. 20-21.

"This is what really counts the most," Hornyak said of the start of the postseason. "The next 2½ weeks, this is when it counts.

"This is when it's fun. You either play well or you go home."

Suttons Bay and St. Francis, in addition to being ranked, come into the district as league champions.

The Gladiators won their second straight Lake Michigan title while the Norse won at least a share of the Northwest Conference for the eighth straight time.

But there's still some tinkering to be done.

"Our guys are playing pretty well, but some not quite to their standards," Hornyak said. "When we go to the regional, we know we're going to go up against Suttons Bay again, Harbor Springs and you never know.

"We haven't put four real good scores together in weeks."

Suttons Bay, led by senior Nate Kelly, has brought their averages down as of late.

"We've proven we're more than just Nate," Hursey said. "Nate's tournament average is great, but we have four kids averaging in the 70s now."

Even though there's less pressure to advance from the district to the regional as there is from regional to state, both teams would like to take the next step with the district trophy in tow.

"I've always felt as a coach, if it's going to go up in the gym on a banner, it's worth trying to win," Hursey said. "Districts and regionals, the goal is to advance. And if you advance, it leads to another goal.

"But I think we want to win this just as much as St. Francis."

The district hosted by Suttons Bay is one of three involving Division 4 area teams.

To the north, No. 9 ranked Harbor Springs, No. 10 Inland Lakes and No. 11 Rudyard are in the field at the Indian River Country Club.

Frankfort, Manistee Catholic and Onekama head to the district at Ramshorn on the Lakes, hosted by Hesperia.

All the area Division 3 teams head to the district at Manistee National.

Gaylord hosts a Division 2 district at the Otsego Country Club. Cadillac, Cheboygan and Petoskey are the other area teams in the field.

Traverse City Central and West play in the Division 1 district at the Bay City Country Club.

No. 7 Midland Dow is the lone ranked team in the field.

"I think it's going to be real tight," TC West coach Brian Davis said of the battle for the top six spots. "There might be one or two standout teams, but there's a lot in the middle."

Both TC teams made it to the Division 1 regional last season, which will be at the same spot.

"That's the goal, advance to regionals," TC Central coach Dave McMellen said. "Hopefully, if we make it that far, it'll be at the Flushing Country Club, just like last year."

Both the Titans and Trojans come into the district with some momentum. TC Central won the Big North Conference Championships on Saturday and the overall title while West was second at the tournament, eight shots back of the Trojans.

"Our boys are playing well, I like our chances," Davis said. "For the last two to three weeks, we've been finishing well in tournaments. The scores are hard to compare because, like on Saturday, the weather was ridiculous."

"The guys are real excited about (the district) and pretty confident," McMellen said. "Hopefully that will carry over.

"But it's gold. We have to take what the course gives us and hopefully it's good enough."