PINEHURST The mark of the Green Hope golf team for years has been the consistency of players one through six. If one or two players played poorly, the other four were there to shoot low and make up for it.
Always.
In the second round of the NCHSAA 4-A state tournament Tuesday, the Falcons demonstrated that trademark consistency once again, but not in a way that anyone would have predicted.
The six Falcons who took to Pinehurst No. 6 for the tournaments final 18 holes all had uncharacteristic off days, and they saw their eight-stroke first-round lead evaporate and ended up in a third-place finish, four strokes behind runner-up Charlotte Providence and 10 strokes behind champion Southern Pines Pinecrest.
We all played like crap pretty much, said Green Hope senior Ben Kohles, who followed up a first-round 73 with a second-round 78. None of us played good. All of us played the worst round of the year.
Though Green Hope winner of the last two state championships and three since 2003 didnt play exceptionally well, Pinecrest certainly deserves credit for its win. Led by individual champion Jack Fields blistering second-round, four-under 67, the Patriots shot six strokes better as a team in the second round than the first.
Green Hope, which shot 287 in the first round Monday, shot a second-round 309. The 18-stroke difference between scores in rounds one and two was the third largest disparity in the 12-team field. Concord Robinson was 27 strokes worse in the second round, while Holly Springs improved by 21 shots from round one to round two. But those two teams finished 11th and 12th, respectively, in the team standings.
What makes Green Hopes less-than-stellar second round so perplexing is how well they played their other 18-hole rounds this season.
At the N.C. High School Invitational, the Falcons shot 11-over 299 and won that tournament by eight strokes.
At the Keith Hills High School Kickoff, they shot even-par 288 and won that tournament by three strokes.
At the Tri-Eight championship, they shot even-par 288 and won that tournament by 22 strokes.
At the Mideast Regional, they shot one-under 287 and won that tournament by 11 strokes.
In the first round of the state tournament, they shot three-over 287 and led by eight strokes.
We felt like we left a lot of shots out there, but we all played decent and we played well on the back nine, which helped out a lot, Green Hope sophomore Michael Cromie said of the Falcons first round. But we felt like we could do better today and it just didnt happen. It just wasnt meant to be today.
Michael Marshburn, who had the first-round lead after shooting one-under 70, was cruising along in the second round. He made the turn even for the day, but then his round fell apart. He went bogey, par, double bogey, double bogey over the next four holes and finished the day with a six-over 77.
Just on the back nine, I couldnt get anything going, Marshburn said. It was in the wrong place every time I missed a shot.
Green Hope played the back nine first in the second round, and the day unraveled for the team early. The Falcons were eaten alive by No. 13, a 186-yard par 3 with a downhill approach from the tee into a green that slopes from right to left. A water hazard is left of the green and wooded out of bounds spans from around the back side of the green to the right, about 25 feet from the fringe.
The six Falcons played that hole at a collective nine-over par. Marcus Lindroos, who shot 78 in the first round and 79 in the second, and Brooks Beanland (76-78) were the only two to make par. Kohles quadruple-bogeyed, while Cromie and Will Almand (73-76) doubled.
I hit a perfect shot and the wind died on me, and it went out of bounds, said Cromie, who shot an even-par 71 in the first round and seven-over 78 in the second. I hit another good shot and it hooked left in the water. Honestly, you should play short of the water and just take a bogey and run. I should have done that. But you make mistakes to learn, right?
The Pinehurst No. 6 yardage guide handicaps the hole as the easiest on the course, but Green Hope coach David Allen said it was among the most difficult Tuesday because the pin was placed in the back right-hand corner of the green and the wind was blowing right to left, thus pushing shots into the slope away from the pin and toward the hazard.
After the shaky start, the Falcons were unable to recover.
Its a textbook case of forcing an outcome, Allen said. In this game, you must stick with your strategy, and if you stay poised and maintain your lead and keep believing that if its hard for you, its hard for everybody else, youll be fine. And we didnt do that today. We just played bad at the wrong time.
Great players, great kids, great team wonderful team they just unfortunately played their worst round that they could play at the end.