AUBURN — The St. Dominic Academy Saints changed things up on their home course in their second matchup against the Winthrop Ramblers this week.
Monday, at Winthrop’s home course of Springbrook Golf Club, Justin Keaney played in the No. 1 position against Anthony Owens and lost. The team also lost by three.
Five days later, the Saints slotted Keaney in the No. 2 hole against Zach Robertson, and it paid off. Keaney shot a 40 en route to a 2-up victory, helping his team to a 5½-1½ win over the visiting Ramblers at Fox Ridge Golf Club.
“Playing one all season and having coach move me back to two, kind of put a little chip on my shoulder to prove I can perform well,” Keaney said.
Keaney started off well, parring the first three holes before running into some trouble on the par-5 fourth. He had to keep his foot on the gas down the stretch as Robertson was playing some good golf of his own, shooting a 43.
The reason for the switch in the first place was the play of AJ Parisi, who worked his way to the top over the past few days.
“AJ has been playing really well the last couple of days,” St. Dom’s assistant coach Jeff Gosselin said. “Justin had a rough round, we just wanted to change up the order a little bit. That’s just all we wanted to do there.”
Parisi and Owens battled it out through the front nine with Owens winning 1-up. The match almost got away from Owens on the 290-yard, par-4 eighth hole.
“I played very well until I got an eight on No. 8,” Owens said. “I just bladed an iron, but I thought I played really well. I had two birdies and I almost holed out on (the par-3 fifth hole.).”
In the third match of the afternoon, Brandan Donovan of St. Dom’s took on Brogan Plossay, with Donovan winning, 4-and-3. Donovan matched Keaney with the low round of day at 40.
Nate Richard of St. Dom’s and Charlie de Haas of Winthrop halved their match at No. 4. Janelle Bryant of St. Dom’s won her match with relative ease, 5-and-4 over Carson Camick.
Winthrop will take these results and learn, coach Lonney Steeves said.
“We are definitely going to learn from it,” Steeves said. “We will have a nice conservation about it at Buffalo Wild Wings tonight.”
Both teams are now 4-1 on the season.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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