Windermere boys golf claims West Metro title

Just when you think the Windermere boys golf team couldn’t make it look any easier, the Wolverines punished a talented field during the West Metro Golf Championship at Dubsdread Golf Course Wednesday, Oct. 2.

The Wolverines shot a team total of 280 (1-over-par) and finished a full 16 strokes ahead of second-place Dr. Phillips. Olympia would finish in third place, while West Orange (seventh) and Ocoee (eighth) finished in the top 10.

It was a total team effort for the Wolverines, but it was a hot-shooting Logan Jerrells who separated himself from the pack with a 62 (8-under-par).

“It was just a pretty normal round, but I just putted really well,” Jerrells said. “I wasn’t even hitting the ball that great — I only hit nine of the 18 greens in regulation — but anytime that I was on the greens I made the putt.”

Through 18 holes of golf he recorded six birdies, two eagles and two bogeys, meaning that he could have actually shot a lower score than what he did.

Things were going well through the first eight holes — Jerrells was at -3 — but on the four-par ninth hole things got even better as he holed out from 40 yards, notching an eagle to go -5 through nine.

Jerrells hit a bit of a tough streak just past the halfway point when he bogeyed on the the par-three on 12, before a birdie putt lipped out on the 13th hole. Then on 14, he caught a bad line in the rough and eventually bogeyed the hole.

Despite the issues that popped up, Jerrells would go on to finish strong — grabbing his second eagle on the final hole.

Head Coach Eric Bacon said that, funnily enough, Jerrells came to him before the match and told him that he’d shoot a 63.

“He had seen the course before and he thought he could play it well and he ended up shooting a 62, so he sort of called it,” Bacon said. “He shot a 30 on the front and then he kept birdying.”

Just as Jerrells knew the course well, so did the team as a whole thanks to playing the Eagle 18 Invitational — which was put on by Edgewater High School — a week before. The only difference was that the Wolverines were without starter Juan Echiverri, who had academic matters to attend to.

“It was just a pretty normal round, but I just putted really well. I wasn’t even hitting the ball that great — I only hit nine of the 18 greens in regulation — but anytime that I was on the greens I made the putt.”

— Logan Jerrells 

The absence of Echiverri, who has been an important player for the team, didn’t slow the Wolverines down, as the team’s top four all finished in the top 10.

Cooper Tate shot a 69 to finish in fourth, while Brandon Kohl tied for fifth (73) with Dr. Phillips’ Shawn Lalmoni. Louis Giovacchini finished tied seventh (75) with Olympia’s Aaron Leach. 

For most schools, that kind of day of golf would be exceptional, but for Windermere, it was a case of Jerrells taking the lead while everyone else followed, Bacon said.

“Everyone else played an OK day,” Bacon said. “Typically we have been playing where everyone shoots the same score — par across the board — and that’s unbelievable that you could have a team to have four scorers to par. 

“So this one was Logan went crazy and then everybody — they didn’t play bad — they just didn’t play what they have normally been shooting,” he said. “Everybody was laughing that Logan sort of carried us on this one.”

And just as they have done all season, the Wolverines went straight back to work the following Friday and Saturday after winning the Metro title by participating in yet another tough challenge — the Qdoba Tournament of Champions at Providence Golf Club.

There, the Wolverines finished third in a tournament filled with some of the best golf talent in the state, but this time it was Tate (68, 70; 138) that led the team.

With one last tournament before the start of district and postseason play, the hope for Bacon is that the onslaught of talent his team faced will help them be prepared for when the wins matter the most.

“We’ve been playing against the best competition I can find, and so now when we go to districts, regionals and states we’ll be used to it,” Bacon said. “So it’ll just be another event and we play the course and see what happens. I think we’ll be battle tested when it comes to the playoffs.”