At the top of high school golf leaderboards, the Holy Family Tigers aren’t hard to find. Just a week ago, the Tigers proved strong with two consecutive wins in four days at the Sterling Invite and the final NCAC League event, respectively. Heading into the 3A Region 3 Championship on September 19th, they were the favorites and coming in hot.
Early in the round on Tuesday, the Tigers appeared to be headed towards another win. Through eight holes, a six stroke lead over the second favorite Eaton Reds placed Holy Family at the top of the leaderboard. However, bogeys upon bogeys from the Tigers, as well as a phenomenal stretch of holes played by Eaton’s Dayne Schmidke (So.), gave Eaton a one stroke lead through 15 holes. Schmidke finished with three consecutive bogeys, and with only one player left to finish for each team, the match was in a tie.
The finishing hole was a 546 yard par five, and Rudiger Heitz of Holy Family was first to tee off. His drive headed right, towards out-of-bounds stakes that lined the hole, but fortunately stopped short in the native grass. Eaton’s Preston Walker tee’d off after Heitz, and he drove the ball into the left native grass. Rudi punched out of the barranca and he was in good position for an approach shot to the green. Preston hit multiple shots in and out of the weeds, eventually reaching the green in five strokes. Heitz hit his third safely on the green, giving himself two putts to win the tournament for the Tigers.
Needing to make his putt to have any chance of tying the hole, Walker rolled in a left-to-right breaking eight foot putt, forcing Heitz to two putt for the win. Rudi’s first putt tracked towards the hole with good pace, almost going in, and ultimately stopped two feet from the cup. With a packed gallery and all eyes on him, Heitz confidently holed the remaining putt to seal a third consecutive win for the Tigers.
Following the victory, Heitz said, “I knew I was making that putt. I heard mumbles from the group that Preston ended up making a six, so I was completely aware that (the putt) was for the win.”
As a result of the win, the Tigers have automatically qualified all four varsity players for the Class 3A State Championship in October at Raindance National in Windsor.
