New Richmond senior Chris Mazzaro shot a 79 at sectionals to finish third among non-team qualifying individuals.

New Richmond senior Chris Mazzaro shot a 79 at sectionals to finish third among non-team qualifying individuals.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

A unique chain of events unraveled at the Division II sectional golf tournament on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at Sharon Woods and played out over the course of a two-day period culminating with three Clermont County golfers moving on to the district tournament.

16 teams of five golfers each were vying for four team spots and four more individual spots in this week’s district tournament. Among them were locals Batavia, Bethel-Tate, Clermont Northeastern and New Richmond. Although none of the four advanced in the team competition, New Richmond’s Chris Mazzaro and Bryce Kroeger and Bethel-Tate’s Mitchell McElfresh will be competing on Thursday. Oct. 2 at Weatherwax Golf Course in Middletown, Ohio.

The rules of the sectional tournament are fairly simple despite this year’s circumstances being far from it. The Ohio High School Athletic Association rules state that four teams shooting the lowest score along with the four low individuals on non-qualifying teams advance to the next round.

New Richmond’s Mazzaro did so with ease. Despite his team finishing in sixth place overall, Mazzaro secured his trip to districts via a 9-over par 79, which was third among individuals on a non-qualifying team.

“Looking at it as a whole, Chris was disappointed with a 79 considering some of the other scores that were out there,” New Richmond head coach Steve Wolf said. “It was one of those days that he couldn’t score, he couldn’t get anything going. Chris held it together with duct tape and chicken wire and got through to districts.”

For Kroeger and McElfresh, their advancement was far more stressful.

McElfresh, a junior at Bethel-Tate, signed an incorrect scorecard, posting an 82 as opposed to the 81 he actually shot. Under the rules, signing for an incorrect scorecard for a higher number induces no penalty. However, had he signed for a score lower than what he actually shot, he would have been disqualified.

McElfresh’s 81 would have put the Tiger standout in a playoff for the fourth and final individual qualifying spot. Instead, his signed-for 82, the same score that New Richmond’s Kroeger posted, left the two Southern Buckeye Conference golfers on the outside looking in.

While things looked bleak for the Clermont linksters, there was a silver lining. Mariemont’s Will Grimmer, the individual sectional champion and a US Open qualifier earlier this summer, was expected to withdraw from the state tournament to play in the USGA Men’s State Team Championships.

Under OHSAA rules, once a player competes in an interscholastic competition, he may not compete outside of OHSAA-sanctioned events. This rule held Grimmer from playing for his school until the beginning of September after he had competed in the United States Amateur and the Junior Players Championship. This week’s Men’s State Tournament in French Lick, Ind. effectively ended Grimmer’s interscholastic season and career, leaving the door cracked for Kroeger and McElfresh to advance to the district tournament.

Tim Tilton, the OHSAA-appointed tournament manager at Sharon Woods, was aware of both Grimmer’s plans and the impact it would have on Kroeger and McElfresh.

“(Grimmer) earned his spot at the district, that’s for sure,” Tilton said. “I gave him some time consider if missing the district was what he wanted to do. He called me on Friday, (Sept. 26) and said he’s officially going to play in French Lick.

“That made it easy for (Kroeger and McElfresh) who had missed the fourth spot by one stroke. At the time, we didn’t want to play them off for a ‘maybe’ spot because we weren’t sure of Will’s decision. Having threesomes (at districts for the individual qualifiers), I could tell them that they both advanced (when word came from Grimmer on Friday).”

“We thought that Mitchell had a chance at a second life,” Bethel-Tate head coach Brett Harris said, citing online reports that said Grimmer would participate in French Lick. “(McElfresh) has worked so hard this year that I really would hated him to miss out on the opportunity because of clerical error.”

With Grimmer officially teeing off in the Men’s Team Competition Tuesday morning, both Kroeger and McElfresh are through to the district. They will play in the second group of individual qualifiers on Thursday, Oct. 2 at Weatherwax, teeing off the Woodside course at 10:50 a.m.

Mazzaro tees off in the group ahead of Kroeger and McElfresh at 10:40 a.m.