TOLEDO – Braden Ward picked a good day to shoot a career-best round.
The Fremont Ross junior first-year golfer carded a personal-best score of 103 Wednesday at the TRAC Championship at Stone Ridge Golf Course.
“He played the best 18 holes of his life today, shot 49 on the back 9, which is a very good for someone who’s never played Stone Ridge before,” Ross golf coach Jim Scharer said. “I was very pleased with his performance. He was very happy. It was fun to see him excel at this early stage of his career at a very important time.”
Ward’s 103 was the Little Giants’ second-lowest score of the day as Ross shot a team score of 421, coming in seventh. St. John’s won the event with a 325.
“We shot 437 the first time we played there, so a 16-shot improvement is OK,” Scharer said. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I wasn’t a little bit disappointed, I thought we were starting to play a little better. We putted very poorly today. We did not make very many putts and when you do that you leave a lot of shots on the golf course over four players.”
Zane Rusch led the Little Giants with a 95 while Cole Druckenmiller added a 108 and Braxton White rounded out the scoring with a 116.
“Stone Ridge is tough,” Scharer said. “The ground was wet and the rough was high, the conditions were conducive to a little bit higher scores.”
The Little Giants will return to Stone Ridge on Oct. 2 for the sectional tournament. When they do so, Scharer has a definitive goal in mind for his team.
“We want to beat 400 at stone Ridge, in the sectional,” he said. “I think it can, I really do. It depends on the weather, obviously, if it’s cold or cold and rainy, it’ll impact (scores) but if we can get a little confidence over the next couple weeks here, I think we can do it.”