Tourney ready for local golfers

By Nick Fortini

The Herald Bulletin

ANDERSON, Ind. — All the dual-meets this fall lead up to one thing: sectionals. Saturday at 9 a.m. at Grandview Golf Course, Anderson and Pendleton Heights will tee off against seven other high schools eager to advance to regionals, then ultimately state.

In their way are Alexandria, Elwood Fishers, Hamilton Heights, Hamilton Southeastern, Lapel and Noblesville.

Pendleton Heights coach Chad Taflinger wants to see improvement from what his team did last year.

“We finished sixth last year shooting a 369 and weren’t really in contention,” Taflinger said. “We are wanting to be in the top three and advance but need to cut off 20 strokes.”

Taflinger hopes his team matches their top performance from this season. Their lowest score for nine holes was 165. To have a good shot, Taflinger says his team needs to be in the 350-360 range. This score won’t come easy, and he says the girls need to finish strong.

“We’ve had a lot of matches where we haven’t finished well,” he said. “We’ve had some instances where the last two or three holes came stumbling in. We want to make sure there are 18 holes and not worry about the score. Just finish strong.”

If Anderson wants to advance, it must rally around its best player, Morgan Nadaline. Her best round this year is a solid 73. Next best is Emily Parker with 84.

Anderson coach Bob Windlan was unavailable for comment.

If it’s an edge that’s needed, Pendleton Heights and Anderson have it. Both schools are rather familiar with the course on Saturday.

Grandview Golf Course is the home course for Anderson. The Pendleton Heights coach says his team has plenty of experience with it.

“It’s a course we know better than any team other than Anderson,” Taflinger said. “We’re used to it. We just need to relax and go play.

“It’s going to be a 4-5 hour day. One hole is not going to make or break anything. They just need to stay relaxed.”