On Monday morning, Cicero-North Syracuse boys golfer Joe Petrin went after a state championship.
Close to the lead with 18 holes left in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament in Ithaca, Petrin got a close-up view of the race for the top spot, but could not keep up with it.
First of all, Petrin had to get into contention, which he did during Sunday’s opening round as 99 players teed off on Cornell University’s Robert Trent Jones-designed par-71 course.
For the most part, Petrin stuck to his numbers on the front line, except for a double bogey on 1 and a triple bogey on 4. He played the rest of the front nine in one under part, turned in 39, and then made two birdies and two bogeys on the back nine, including a birdie on the par-five 18th.
No one in the field would break par, but Petrin, with a four-over-par 75, tied Somers’ Christian Cavaliere for sixth place. Four players – Pittsford Mendon teammates Will Thomson and Gunnar Doyle, along with Pittsford Sutherland’s Jack Gianniny and Shenendehowa’s Kyle Mathews – were tied for first at two-over-par 73, one shot ahead of Sewanhaka’s Chris Yeom, alone in fifth place.
And Petrin was far from the only Section III golfer in the picture. CBA’s Jack Bellardini was tied for eighth with a 76, while New Hartford’s Tom Mandel (78), Baldwinsville’s Christian Nizamis and Frankfort-Schuyler’s Dante Migliore (79 each) lurked too. All told, 30 golfers, nearly a third of the 99-player field, stood within six shots of the lead going into the final round.
Playing in the next-to-last group, Petrin again double-bogeyed the opening hole, only to make birdies on 5 and 6 before a triple bogey on the par-five 7th caused him to fall out of contention.
Turning in 40, Petrin played a bit better on the back nine, but could not record a birdie and finished with a 79, eight over part. That would put him in a tie for 16th place at 154, one behind Mandel (153) and two behind Bellardini (152), whose tie for 12th was best among Section III golfers.
Meanwhile, West Canada Valley’s Bobby Davenport shot a 157, followed on the Section III side by Nizamis (159), Auburn’s Mike May (161), Migliore (163) and Fayetteville-Manlius teammates Mike Lee (164) and Jack Santaro (169). Section III, as a team, finished fourth after winning team honors in the 2013 state tournament.
And the individual title went to Gianinny, who put together a two-under-par 69 that included three straight birdies on the front nine and seven birdies all. His even-par 142 beat Matthews by three shots.
