Blue Jays Finish in Fourth Place at the Regional Tourney

Carlo Carino tees off in the regional tournament held at Carter Plantation on Tuesday.

View the Photo Gallery of the Blue Jays at the Regional Golf Tournament

View the Photo Gallery of Blue Jay Golfers Winning a District Championship

Jesuit’s golf team battled the usual demons of the sport – heat, a stiff wind on certain holes, sand traps, and inconsistency – all of which produced mixed results at the Region II Tournament held on Tuesday, April 26, at the Carter Plantation Golf Course in Springfield.

Given the historic competitiveness of Jesuit golf, the news was not so bad as it was unexpected –– a fourth place finish for the Blue Jays at the regional event. At least one or more golfers on all eight teams experienced the agony of triple bogeys (and worse) on the 18-hole, par-72 David Toms-designed course nestled in the pines outside Ponchatoula.

Grant Glorioso tees off on the par-3 17th hole.

But even fourth place has a silver lining: the top four teams in the two regions of Division I golf advance to the state championship tournament on May 1 -2. Jesuit will compete against seven other teams at the state tournament. View the tee times of the state championship tournament.

Here’s how the teams in the Region II tourney fared (each team has five players whose highest score is discarded; thus, the final total is comprised of the four lowest scores):

1. Catholic High (Baton Rouge): 299 (70-73-75-81)
2. Fontainebleau: 315 (69-79-79-86)
3. Zachary: 319 (74-80-81-84)
4. Jesuit: 320 (78-78-81-83)
5. Paul’s (Covington): 339 (75-86-87-91)
6. Dutchtown: 341 (73-88-90-90)
7. Brother Martin: 347 (84-85-86-92)
8. Denham Springs: 376 (84-91-100-101)

For the Jays, senior co-captains Carlo Carino and Grant Glorioso each carded a 78; sophomore Grayson Glorioso shot an 81; freshman Britton Khalaf turned in an 83; and senior Nolan Lambert’s 87 was discarded.

Coach Owen Seiler ’75 did not mince words after the scores were turned in, saying that the Jays played better in the previous week’s district tournament at Beau Chene in Mandeville, where the Oak Course – with its narrow, tight fairways, unforgiving rough, and broad, sloping greens – is generally conceded to be more challenging and difficult than the course at Carter Plantation. The Jays’ low score of 311 earned them a runaway win and the school’s 20^th district championship. Fontainebleau’s golf team placed second to Jesuit in the district tourney with a 332, and somehow managed to shave 17 strokes playing in the regional event. Jesuit’s 320 in the regional tournament was nine strokes higher than the 311 carded at Beau Chene.

Nolan Lambert blasts out of a fairway bunker on the first hole.

“To be honest, I was a little disappointed with our scoring today,” said Coach Seiler. “The kids seem to struggle to come back when they have a bad hole. They take a bad hole and turn it into three bad holes. It takes them a long time to recover from a bad shot. It’s something we have to work on until we have low rounds of golf consistently.”

The consolation for the young Jays is that the inconsistency malady afflicts even pro golfers.

Coach Seiler observed that Carino owned “the best shot I saw all day.”

It happened on the 10^th hole – a straightaway 317-yard, par-4. Carino drove his Titleist Pro-V1 ball a little bit to the right, “then made a beautiful recovery shot that left him a foot from the hole.”

He tapped in for a birdie 3 on what is the course’s eleventh toughest hole.

The Jays will be one of eight teams to compete in the two-day state tournament at Farm d’Allie Golf Club in Carencro next week. Jesuit’s starters will include the Glorioso brothers (Grant and Grayson), Carino, Khalaf, and sophomore J.T. Holmes.

“We played Farm d’Allie quite a bit and know the course,” said Coach Seiler. “The kids will play a practice round on Sunday to try to get ready for Monday and Tuesday. We’ll try to play better. Two of our kids got better (at the regional tournament), two got worse, and one stayed the same. We need all five to play better.”