By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Ellinwood senior Drew Heinz had come close to a state title entering last week's Class 2A State Golf Championships in Dodge City. He finished three shots behind Salina-Sacred Heart's Michael Matteucci last year in a second-place finish, and missed the title by a single shot as a sophomore. Monday was a big day. Heinz shot a 66 on day one of the state meet to open up a five-stroke lead. He shot a 74 on Tuesday to finish with 140 strokes and beat the runner-up Matteucci by eight shots.
"Of course, I was expecting to win," Heinz said. "I knew my game was feeling pretty good going into the tournament so I thought I had a good chance to win it. It felt nice. I could kind of take it all in on the back nine because I had a pretty comfortable lead then. It felt nice to enjoy it."
READ MORE: Ellinwood golf team finishes second at state
Ellinwood had some formidable teams before the team disbanded several years ago. Coach Greg Maxwell helped bring the program back four years ago. Heinz placed 10th at state as a freshman, then set the stage for this year's title with the back-to-back runner-up finishes.
Heinz was the only player to go under 70 strokes on day one. Matteucci and teammate Walker Tuttle both shot 71s on day one, and Sacred Heart's Luke Newell was sitting on 73 strokes heading into championship day. Heinz did not let his lead impact his play on Tuesday.
"I didn't play it much safer," he said. "I knew if I stuck to my game plan and hit the tee shots at the targets I wanted to, I was going to be fine either way."
Heinz also had some team goals on the line. Sacred Heart, going after a ninth-straight state championship, finished day one with a team score of 293. Ellinwood was sitting second with 331 strokes, just three shots ahead of Topeka's Cair Paravel Latin School. Fifth-place Hoxie was just eight strokes back of Ellinwood in the tight field.
"We knew they were right on our tails but we felt good because we didn't really play our best golf the first day," Heinz said. "We knew we could stretch the gap a little bit the second day."
With windy conditions and tucked pins, scores were higher across the board on day two. While most squads saw double-digit increases on Tuesday, Ellinwood's score moved just seven strokes to finish at 669. Cair Paravel added 14 strokes from its day-one score to finish third with 682.
Heinz added eight strokes on day two to finish with a two-day total of 140. Matteuci added just six strokes from day one but still finished three shots behind Heinz on Tuesday to finish with a 148. Tuttle added 11 strokes on Tuesday to fall to fourth with a 153.
Heinz had played the Dodge City course twice this season before playing it two more times at state. He will continue his golf career next season on the course as a member of the Dodge City Community College team.