Unlikely hero gets Hawks golf team to the big show
Hiland’s Grant Bille’s scores haven’t counted much this season due to the first four Hawks playing consistent golf. However, when the Hawks and Garaway Pirates tied at districts, Bille’s eye-popping 84, almost a dozen strokes below what he normally posts, came through to send the Hawks to state.
All season long the Hiland Hawks and Garaway Pirates’ golf teams butted heads in anticipation of what took place Monday, Oct. 2 at River Greens Golf Course near West Lafayette.
After all the accomplishments, team scores, and every time they met and one team or the other emerged victorious, none of that mattered because everything boiled down to the one spot that would advance out of district play to the state tournament.
Who would have ever guessed the winning team would be determined by a young man whose score hasn’t counted much this season.
In order to determine a victor, the scoreboard had to go one score deeper than normal because both teams finished the day with the top four scores combining for a 322.
In that case the tiebreaker becomes the fifth man to play, and for the Hawks, that man was freshman Grant Bille, whose score hasn’t counted much this year because the Hawks’ top four have been very consistent.
On this day, however, it was Bille’s time to shine.
The freshman carded a score of 84, which propelled Hiland to its sixth state tournament appearance.
“In all my years coaching at Hiland, I’ve never had this experience happen to us where we went to a tiebreaker to go to state, and believe me, it was nerve-racking,” Hiland head coach Austin Kaufman said.
All year Bille has posted scores in the 95-100 range, and as a young player, he has taken steps to improve his game throughout the year, but this kind of effort was the type of stuff of which dreams are made, especially with the immense amount of pressure packed into this one 18-hole tournament with a state berth on the line.
“Just incredible,” Kaufman said. “Grant has been hitting it better and better, but to do this and to come through with that type of pressure on is something special. He showed a lot of maturity that goes beyond his experience.”
Kaufman said he didn’t spend a lot of time with Bille throughout the day, instead moving from player to player to keep guys focused and help them make some important decisions on key holes.
In addition, Kaufman said he knew there was a good chance his team would be trailing after the number ones came in, not because he didn’t have confidence in his guy Jack Mast, but because he knew what Garaway would throw into the mix with Trace Gibson, the best player in the area who consistently shoots great numbers.
Kaufman said they kind of assumed Gibson would come in strong, and he did, posting a medalist score of even-par 72 that pushed him on to state as the top individual.
However, the Hawks responded with consistency. Jack Mast and Camden Bille both carded 79s for the Hawks while another freshman, Andrew Beun, added an 80. Monty Coblentz tacked on an 84, and then the score comparisons began, although both teams knew through the grapevine things were ultra-tight.
Garaway’s Carter Miller came in with a nice score of 80. Keshawn Miller and Nick Maust both added 85s, and then the math kicked in.
After all the trials and tribulations, all of the battles throughout the season, the back-and-forth of these two friendly rivals, it all boiled down to this: a tie.
Grant Bille’s 84 would best the 90 posted by Garaway’s AJ Miller, and the Hawks enjoyed a moment of jubilation that allowed them to release all of that pent-up anxiety while the Pirates had to accept having played well but dealing with the anguish of any one shot left on the course making a difference between victory and defeat.
Kaufman said both teams have scored better this season, but the pressure of what was at stake added to the weight on the shoulders of each player.
Every shot matters, but in a contest this tight, finishing strong means a lot. Beun finished the final two holes 1-under par, and Kaufman said his team played the final few holes very well.
Kaufman said one thing his team did well was execute course management, making good choices to eliminate big scores on any given hole.
“The kids were thinking great and made some really smart decisions on how to attack certain holes where they could have gotten into some big numbers,” Kaufman said. “We avoided big numbers, which is key. I felt super-confident with this group even though we were pretty young.”
Kaufman said he feels a certain disappointment for the Garaway players, knowing they worked hard and recognizing the respect his team has for them.
These two teams have created an amazing tradition of winning golf. Garaway has been a true presence at the state tournament for many years while Hiland’s recent success has pushed them into the small-school elite.
“It’s a shame that we aren’t taking two teams from this district because over the years the team that has finished runner-up here would have done really well at state,” Kaufman said. “I feel for Garaway, and I know if we would take two teams out of here, they would be incredibly competitive at state.”
But all season long, both teams knew what was at stake, and it all boiled down to an unlikely hero that sent the Hawks to the big show in Columbus.