Weston weathers storm to repeat

STERLING — With temperatures in the upper 40s and conditions varying from drizzle to steady showers, it would be hard for Sterling National Country Club to play any harder than it did in Monday’s MIAA Division 3 Championship.

The name of the game was to keep the big numbers to a minimum, grind out every par possible, and keep everything as dry as possible.

Opening with a triple bogey was not what St. John Paul II senior Jack Carstensen had in mind. The South sectional co-medalist did not let early misfortune derail him, however, and played even-par golf the rest of the way to card a 3-overpar 74 to capture the individual championship.

“I hit a 3-wood over the trees, right where I wanted to, but I heard it hit trees. I had to take an unplayable from the trees, I missed a putt, but I didn’t hit many bad shots on that hole,” he said of his misfortune at No. 4. “My coach [Geoff Converse] always tells me, go make a par on the next hole if you do something bad, and I strung along like seven straight pars and a birdie.”

It turned out to be one stroke better than defending champion Zach Pelzar of Weston.

“It was pretty hard. It was cold, that was the hardest part,” said Pelzar, a senior who reached the Mass. Junior quarterfinals and will be attending Emory University next fall.

“The rain you can deal with, but when it’s cold and you can barely feel your hands, it’s a different story. Especially in the middle of the round when it started raining harder.”

That was when his round got derailed, dropping four shots over Nos. 10-12, before playing 1 under par over the final six holes, a stretch in which he had four birdie bids from inside 20 feet, but could only convert at No. 15.

After hitting his tee shot way left at No. 12, he made a solid 8-foot putt for bogey. On a day when playing both as an individual and as part of a team, a shot like that not only got him back on track, but helped Weston defend its team title with a score of 322, one shot better than St. John Paul II.

Weston coach Mary O’Brien likened Pelzar to another coach, noting he worked with one of the sophomores for four hours on a recent Saturday.

“Even though he is a really good golfer in his own right, it’s almost as important that his teammates have success because he knows that teams don’t win with one superstar,” said O’Brien, whose has guided the Wildcats to nine state titles since 2007.

Weston junior William Balz and Max Shepardson of Lenox tied for third with 79s. Sophomores William Goldstein (83) and Teddy Dreyer (85) had the other two scores that counted for Weston.