Rhett Barker edges Barber for Jemsek Trophy in IG Challenge

    Writing from Glenwood, Illinois
    Tuesday, June 24, 2014

    Usually, the difference in a golf competition can be found on the back nine. Tuesday at Glenwoodie Golf Course, where it dawned rainy and stayed cool until the sun came out, the difference in the Boys 16-to-18 Division came on the front nine. Rhett Barker of Crown Point, Ind., and Michael Barber of Beecher were equal on the back, each scoring 1-over-par 37.
    But Barker took the measure of Barber on the front, carding 2-over 38 to Barber’s 4-over 40. The math was simple: Barker’s 3-over 75 beat Barber’s 5-over 77.
    The different came on the first and ninth holes. Barker parred both par 4s. Barber bogeyed both par 4s. The other seven holes, each scored 30 on. And Barker knew exactly how he accomplished it.
    “I scrambled a lot,” he said. “I had eight one-putts.”
    Barker punched out eight pars on the back nine, making bogey only on the 17th, at 331 yards from the blue tees the shortest par-4 on the course. Barber, who finished 11th in the IHSA’s Class 1A championship last fall, bogeyed the 10th, birdied the 13th and needed one more birdie down the stretch to tie Barker, but bogeyed the last instead.
    Michael Goodman of Dyer, the only Mount Carmel student in the field, was third, at 6-over 78. Like Barker, he was also out in 38, but a double-bogey on the par-4 10th and two other bogeys sent him backwards. It may have been that his start was too good to be true.
    “The key for me was only 11 putts on the front,” Goodman said. “And putting’s been the worst part of my game.
    Ryan Wells of Dyer was fourth at 9-over 81, with David Karwoski of Oak Forest fifth at 11-over 83.
    As far as conditions go, the older boys bracket, the first to play, had the worst of it. It was raining at 5 a.m. and still draining off and on when tee times began at 6:30 a.m. But thanks to superintendent Eric Swanson and his crew, the course was playable, and going to “lift, clean and place” wasn’t necessary. That made the scores that much more impressive.
    “On a dry day, I’m probably a couple under par, maybe 68 or 69,” Barker said.
    He settled for soggy socks and a trophy instead.
    – Tim Cronin