Utica Golfers Edge St. Clair By A Stroke

Phew!

The boys golf team bettered their Macomb Area Conference White Division season record to 4-5 Tuesday night.

By just one stroke.

The Chieftains defeated MAC White opponents St. Clair 174-175 at the course on an overcast and soggy afternoon.

Senior David Idziak, who averages 43 in his first year on the varsity team, shot the team's low score with a 41 and led the Chieftains to victory. 

"My drive was definitely there today," said Idziak. "I had a few birdies but a lot of bogeys. Hole No. 6, a par 5, is usually my best hole because I drive the farthest and usually get there in two shots and birdied it today. In general, I think our team did alright, but we can do better. We'll definitely have to get some putting practice in before districts." 

agrees.

"The most important part of the game especially at this age is the short game everything around the green," said Morin. "That's where you can lose all of your strokes. In order to lower our scores, we have to eliminate the three-putts. If we do that, we should be OK."

Utica inched out the win, but were about 10 strokes above where they should be on average.

"In order for my varsity golfers to move on in the tournaments we have coming up, we will have to shoot much better than we did today," said Morin. "But, we got the victory and sometimes you take what you can get and move on."

St. Clair remains winless at 0-8 in the White Division, but first-year varsity coach Ken Mareski is proud of his boys and refers to this year as his "rebuilding year."

For St. Clair, junior Eric Hudolin was tops with a 41, sophomore Ben Edwards had a 44 and junior Craig Gilewski scored a 45.

Utica's last division match of the season is next Thursday against Dakota at Sycamore Hills. Then it's on to the division meet, the UCS tournament and districts from there.