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Korbakes, Providence rule Minooka Regional
Minooka 3A Golf Regional in Channahon Tuesday October, 4, 2011.
| Ray Luna ~ For Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 4, 2011 10:18PM
Providence senior Telly Korbakes has not seen much of Heritage Bluffs Golf Course in Channahon.
But his older brother Peter is familiar with the layout, and Telly is wise enough to listen.
“This is only my second time here, but my brother has been here and he told me about how it would be a grind,” Korbakes said after shooting a 1-over-par 73 Tuesday to win individual laurels and lead the Celtics to the team title in the Class 3A Minooka Regional. “So that was my mind-set — get out here and grind.”
Korbakes made five birdies but said he “stumbled in” on the picture-perfect day, finishing double-bogey, bogey.
“But I worked hard enough the first bunch of holes that I could do that,” he added with a smile.
Providence closed with a 308 team total. Lincoln-Way Central was second with 320 and Lockport grabbed the third and final qualifying spot for Monday’s Joliet Sectional at Inwood with 324. Joliet Township totaled 330, Lincoln-Way East 335, Minooka 339, Lincoln-Way North 347, Andrew 377 and Romeoville 451.
SouthWest Suburban Blue champion Joliet was not totally blanked. Four Steelmen are among 10 individuals not on advancing teams who earned sectional berths. Lincoln-Way East sported three qualifiers, Minooka two and Lincoln-Way North one.
“We knew it would be a tough regional, that there were five teams here that could get out,” Providence coach John Platt said. “Lockport has good kids and they kind of play under the radar.”
The overall scores perhaps being higher than anticipated suggest Heritage Bluffs won the battle.
“The weather was perfect,” Platt said. “But I think what happened was the greens were quicker than these kids have been used to playing. You heard some of the better players talking about how they had four or five three-putts.”
Platt, whose team has qualified for state the last two years, said Korbakes’ effort mirrored his season.
“Telly has been playing real good,” he said. “It’s a team sport, but he has been our most consistent player by far.”
Korbakes was followed by Providence senior Casey Labuda, who shot 36 on the back nine for 75. Lincoln-Way Central’s Tom Schuman shot 76 and Providence’s Ryan Utter and Joliet’s Blake Billups were the other All-Regional medal winners at 78. Billups fired a 36 on the back nine.
Central’s Bryant Bolden also shot 78 and missed All-Regional on a scorecard tiebreaker.
The individual qualifiers were Joliet’s Billups, Trent Wallace (81), Jake McCollum (85) and Devyn Boswell (86); Lincoln-Way East’s Matt Contey (79), Matt Stoner (83) and Ron Gorny (84); Minooka’s Jason Chobar (82) and Tommy Uraski (85); and Lincoln-Way North’s Nick Maleski (80). Boswell beat Minooka’s Kent Hudson and Dan Zych and North’s Drew Korosic in the on-course tiebreaker for the 10th and final sectional spot.
The other counting score for Providence was freshman Mickey Brick’s 82.
“My freshman shooting 45-37 was a key,” Platt said.
Central coach Don Hayes and Lockport coach George Brecheisen both noted their teams were strong on the back nine.
Central’s other counting scores were Tony Kestel (83) and Ronnie Boggs (83), while Lockport got 80s from Jake Hertzmann, AJ Michalowicz and Kyle Yaeger and 84s from Gehrig Hollatz, Andrew Slonski and Zach Trent.
“You treat this as a qualifier and move on to the next level,” Hayes said. “Our kids did a great job on the back, where we had four sub-40s. We improved by 10 strokes back to front and it wasn’t the same four kids.”
“We’ve been pretty consistent, and today we hung together on the back nine,” Brecheisen said. “You can let it slide when you don’t have a real good front nine, and we didn’t.”
Joliet coach Ed Larson was thrilled to have four individual qualifers.
“It’s a great day for our guys,” he said. “I’m looking forward to all four doing some damage on their home course (Inwood).”
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