Cape goes to 3-2 for season
April 10, 2009
Neither fog nor rain nor the gloom of a gray, damp, windy April afternoon stayed the Cape Henlopen High School golf team from the completion of their mission to move their 2009 season to a better win-loss record.
On April 2, the Vikings traveled to Cripple Creek Country Club in Ocean View to play the Indians of Indian River High School, and won fairly handily on the par-36 front nine.
“It was very foggy at Cripple Creek,” said Claudio Smarrelli, the head coach. “We had to yell ‘Fore!’ for every shot.”
Senior Tristan Karsnitz won medallist honors with a three-over par 39. “There were no birdies,” he said, “just six pars and three bogeys. It was real foggy, though.” Karsnitz said that on the short par-three fourth hole, whose green sits by the edge of Indian River Bay, “You couldn’t even see the water.”
That’s foggy.
Fellow senior Sean Toner, a left-hander, was second best for the Vikings with a 42, his lowest score in the early goings of this season. “I was having trouble hitting my driver, so I dropped back and started using my 4-hybrid, because I don’t have any fairway woods. I doubled three holes, the fourth, ninth, and fifth, and parred all the others.”
Casey Anderson shot a 43 for third place on his squad that day, but wasn’t too impressed by it. He agreed with the others’ assessment about the fog, but didn’t blame the weather for his score.
Dan Scrutchfield and Nick Purnell tied for fourth-best for Cape, with a pair of 46s. Scrutchfield said, “I had a couple big holes,” and Purnell said his putting was off and on.
On April 7, the team hosted the Lake Forest High School Spartans at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, and won again on the par-36 front nine, 178-204. Lake Forest saw its record drop to 3-3, while Cape’s rose to 3-2 after the Vikings’ 0-2 start.
Karsnitz took medallist honors again, this time with a 41. “I wasn’t hitting off the tee so great, but I putted and chipped really well,” he said. “I made a lot of putts from 5 feet in. I had one double bogey, three bogeys, and five pars.”
Anderson shot a 45 for second place among the Vikings, and was not too happy with his round. “I had trouble on the greens. I had at least two lip-outs, and a couple that just pushed out. On one birdie putt, the ball stopped just before it would’ve rolled in,” he said.
Scrutchfield had a simple explanation for his 46, which tied him with Toner for third- and fourth-best for Cape. “I had a bunch of bogies.”
The cold weather may have been a factor. It looked like he rushed his approach putt on the ninth hole, for example, something that’s easy to do when the wind is up and the temperature is down.
For Toner, his round was almost the opposite of his Cripple Creek match. “I was hitting my driver straight as an arrow. I couldn’t hit my irons worth a crap,” he said.
Rain forced the postponement of the team’s April 6 home match with Delmarva Christian. The match was rescheduled to April 8, and Smarrelli planned to sit out his two top golfers, Anderson and Karsnitz, to give some of the younger varsity players a chance to show their improvement. The team was then scheduled to play another host match against Laurel High School, before the spring break in the season.
With no matches scheduled for the week of April 12, Smarrelli hoped to convince some of the junior varsity players to play a practice round or two with some of the varsity. “I want to see how they’re doing,” he said.
The Vikings return from spring break April 21 for another home match, against the Milford Buccaneers.