Well I made it up to Ithaca, but not until the early afternoon since the weather looked so bad in the forecast in the morning. Wrong. Apparently it was beautiful this morning and when I arrived, things started to get bad.

With the coaches getting lunch and having just missed the players tee off on the back nine in their practice round, I decided to hit the range for awhile. Right at the end of an unsuccessful practice session, the skies opened up as a huge thunder and lightning storm swept in.

Players were herded in off the course as I got soaked running back to my car. After sitting through a torrential rain, I opened the door and tracked down the Section 1 team. They seemed in good spirits and used the break to get some food and hang out. They had played 13 holes Friday and 14 holes this morning, but when it cleared up, they decided to go out and finish their round. The only highlight I heard about was a Luke Feehan approach shot to a foot on the par-4 second hole.

I hung out with the coaches. After a quick stop at the dorms, we made a run to Dick’s Sporting Goods where I fell to temptation and bought a shirt and a hat. Then I found my hotel, the lovely Comfort Inn, and checked in. I was planning on heading back to the dorms for dinner (the cafeteria at Cornell is awesome), but I’m feeling too lazy to make the 10 minute drive. I also noticed a Chili’s right down the block…

Other random comments from my journey:

-The farther you drive away from the city, the more NASCAR apparel you see.

-A Wendy’s and a Chili’s appear to share the same parking lot off the exit for the Woodbury outlet stores. When I saw that, I thought for a moment I was looking at Heaven.

-I stopped at a Wendy’s in the town, I mean village of Deposit (I want to make sure I get that right so I don’t offend the 10 people that live there). While paying for my food, I noticed an autographed picture of the blond haired kid from the TV show 7th Heaven hanging right above the health rating. I know that because the picture listed both his real and character names as well as the name of the show at the bottom. I can only assume that he once ate there. What a big day that must have been in Deposit.

So, all week long I’ve planned on heading to Ithaca for the state championships early. And by early, I mean really early.

I was going to begin the four-plus hour drive at about 5 a.m. to make a 9:30ish tee time with some of the coaches. Who am I kidding. I’ve been planning/looking forward to possibly playing 36 on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course there for weeks, if not months.

However, I just checked weather.com for about the 10th time today and it looks like the horrific forecast for tomorrow isn’t changing. So I’m in limbo over whether or not to still go early or sleep in and get there sometime in the afternoon.

Fortunately, it appears that Sunday and Monday will be much nicer so hopefully, weather won’t affect the actual tournament too much. It always seems like there is one terrible day and then one absolutely glorious day. I was hoping for three such days, but it doesn’t appear that’s in the cards.

In any event, please don’t be shy to post your thoughts/comments on this upcoming tournament. We’ve already heard someone weigh in with a Drew Clayton pick, but I’d like to see more people not afraid to go out on a limb.

If I don’t, it’s because the limb I went out on for sectionals completely snapped.

Fellow Team Journal News member Jake Thomases covered the Section 1 girls golf championship up at Casperkill yesterday. Here’s what happened:

1. Anna Ausanio (Wappingers) 84; 2. Julia Fiala (Rye) 87; 3. Alexa Burns (Spring Valley) 93; 4. Leigh Johnson (Wappingers) 94; 5. Jennifer Morvillo (Ursuline) 95; 6t. Meghan Kenney (Lourdes) 97; 6t. Natalie Karafiol (Edgemont) 97; 6t. Meghan Feeney (Ursuline) 97; 9t. Sam Luski (Scarsdale) 99 (won one-hole playoff); 9t. Heather Kesting (Lourdes) 99; 9t. Hannah Suchy (Ursuline) 99; 9t. Laura Barnard (Byram Hills) 99.

Like with the boys, the top 9 players qualified for states, which are June 7-8 in Baldwinsville. Luski punched her ticket through by making a par on the first hole at Casperkill to defeat the other three girls.

Fiala, Burns, and Kenney will all be returning to states.

Just wrapped up writing my story on the CHSAA state championship at James Baird State Park where it was a huge day for Fordham Prep.

The Rams had three of the top 6 players from the 41-golfer field, including first place Jon Renza. Not only did the sophomore win the event for a second straight year, but he did it by winning in a sudden-death playoff.

Even in pressure situations, Renza always remains calm and today was another example. He found himself behind some trees in the left rough on 18 about 140 yards away, but didn’t panic. Instead, he hit a phenomenal/pretty fortunate low hooking shot that bounced over the huge bunker in front of the green and rolled into the rough.

John Rogers from St. Anthony’s, his opponent in the playoff, clearly was a little shaken and was unable to hit a good recovery shot. Renza wound up with a remarkable par to win the hole and capture this title for the second time in two tries.

But Renza won’t be alone next weekend at Mark Twain Country Club in Elmira. He will be joined by junior teammates Teddy Morrissey and John Hough, both of whom shot 77 to finish in a tie for fourth place. The top six golfers from the private school, public school, CHSAA and city school championships advance to the field of 24 players that make up the Federation Championship each year.

Morrissey made it through on his first try, an impressive accomplishment. It’s been a real breakout season for him after watching most of the action the past two years. He played a critical role in the Rams’ recent league championship by beating his opponent in Fordham Prep’s 3-2 win over rival Iona.

Meanwhile, this has been a long-time coming for Hough, who narrowly missed qualifying the past two years. Last year, a double bogey on 18 was costly, but this time, he made an unusual bogey save after his approach shot sailed the green and ended up behind a split-rail wooden fence where spectators were standing. Hough bunted a 3-wood through the green and then got up-and-down to make a five, which wound up being just enough.

Hough used the confidence gained from recently qualifying for the MGA’s Ike Championship as well. He has been playing extremely well of late and he kept that string going today.

The other local players were Stepinac’s Joe Collins (78), Iona Prep’s Rich Korzelius (80), Fordham Prep’s Dave Bush (81), Iona Prep’s Shane Malloy (82) and Fordham Prep’s Paul Toohey. Collins is Stepinac’s standout quarterback during the football season (take that anyone who thinks golfers aren’t tough).

Morrissey, Hough and St. Peter’s Sean Prisco actually had a playoff to determine the 4-6 spots and which trophy they would get. Prisco was eliminated on the first hole, but Hough and Morrissey “battled” for two more holes, before Hough came away with the 4th place hardware.

Neither seemed to care much since they already knew their ticket was punched to Elmira. As Hough pointed out afterwards, it was good it wasn’t a real playoff though, since the two were riding the same car back together…

I just returned from the Section 1 golf team championship at the Links at Union Vale. Rye prevailed in the three-team match by three shots over host Arlington.

The Garnets (207) were led by John Davies, who shot a 1-over 37. Mark Mumford added a 39, despite making a triple bogey on the first hole.

It was the second straight title for Rye. The match was comprised of the top three teams based on scoring average during the regular season. Scarsdale finished third with a score of 210.

David Spiro led a young Raiders team with a 39. Scarsdale will only graduate one senior from a team that sent seven golfers to sectionals last week, the most of any team in the section by far. In other words, expect them to be right back next year.

As for Rye, this concluded another banner season for the golf program. Half of last year’s starters, including all-everything Max Buckley, graduated, but this year’s team was still able to retain its reign as the top team in the section.

Okay, I’m going to keep it short because it was a long day of golf. But in conclusion, let me just say the Links was a beautiful course and our foursome was very happy we made the trek up there early to play even if the scores weren’t stellar. It was fun to play and then see how the actual golfers did things. I’m looking forward to the same opportunity this weekend at the state championships at Cornell…

I will be back up near there again tomorrow for the CHSAA State Championship at James Baird State Park. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tomorrow is another big day in Section 1 golf as the team championship will be held at the Links at Union Vale in LaGrangeville. Why is it so far away (I’m looking up directions as we speak)? Because Arlington had the best team scoring average in the section and thus gets to host the event.

This is a newer event put into play in the last few years, but it makes sense to have a team championship. Three teams qualify based strictly on which three squads had the best scoring average during the regular season.

The three teams are Arlington, Rye and Scarsdale. It should be a good match (9 holes like regular season matches) and I’m looking forward to it. And since I’m making the trek up there… I’m also going to play the track with a few work friends in the morning. So far I’ve heard very, very good things about this links-style course so it should be a treat.

Back to the real match… in a nine-holer, it’s really anyone’s game. All three of these teams were playing very well late. The headliners will be Arlington’s Andrew Graham, who lost in a playoff at the Section 1 championship to Mahopac’s Marisa Kamelgarn, Rye’s Mark Mumford and Sam Weiss, who are both looking to bounce back from disappointing performances at sectionals, and Scarsdale’s David Spiro, who narrowly missed qualifying for the state team. Rye is the defending Section 1 champion.

Wow. Mapquest is predicting a pretty lengthy trip. My tee time is at 9:52 a.m. so I better hit the road… back with more tomorrow.

This year’s Rockland County golf championship was supposed to be dramatic, close and wide open. In both the individual and team competitions, this wasn’t the case at all.

Clarkstown North’s Stephen Scialo shot an even-par-72 at Rotella Golf Course to cruise to the individual title by five shots. Meanwhile, his team won the event by a whopping 20 shots over North Rockland.

Scialo had an eventful round that included three 3-putts, a ball out of bounds and a ball in a water hazard. Six birdies, including three in a row on the back nine, balanced things out (must be nice to have that kind of firepower).

Scialo had a similar round like this at the state tournament last year when he made six birdies in the final round to roar back into a tie for 12th and earn all-state honors. Unfortunately for Scialo, he won’t be going back to Cornell this weekend after a disappointing second round at sectionals left him one shot out of a playoff for the final spot. Scialo seemed very upset still over that, but he clearly didn’t let it affect him during his round as he claimed his second county title to match big brother, Chris.

Also playing well for Clarkstown North was freshman Derrick Kim, who shot 77 to finish second. This capped a strong first campaign for Kim, who moved from South Korea this year.

Senior Jared Greenspan continued his strong play with an 80. He’ll be attending the University of Florida in the fall (smart guy). Mike Kapnick and John Vela each shot 85 to round out the lineup that shot a 399 total.

North Rockland, led by John Casey’s 79, finished second at 419. Suffern used a balanced attack to finish third (422), followed closely by defending champion Clarkstown South (423) and Tappan Zee (425).

TZ’s Tom Griffin (78) finished third and Nyack’s Max Cahn (79) finished tied for fourth with Casey, who will be the only Rockland golfer in the field at the state championship, which begins Sunday.

Let’s see, Tiger Woods hasn’t played since the Masters, has pulled out of the Memorial, and won’t play again until the first round of the U.S. Open.

Sound familiar?

It should. It was only two years ago that Woods’ schedule followed the same pattern—although as opposed to this year, when Woods has been sidelined because of arthroscopic knee surgery, in 2006 he was mourning the death of his father that May.

One event took a severe emotional toll on the game’s No. 1. Another has taken a physical one. But the common thread is Woods is again going to be thrown directly into lion’s den that is a U.S. Open. And if his experience at Winged Foot in ‘06 is any indication—when he missed the cut in a major for the first and only time as a professional—he has reason to be leery.

Not that Woods sees it that way. Because rather than dwell on his sour experience at Winged Foot, Woods in a press conference yesterday chose to reference a sequence in 2003, when he had a similar procedure done on his knee, missed the early part of the season, then came back to win the first tournament he entered. That tournament was the Buick Invitational. The course was Torrey Pines, site of next month’s Open.

“I know what it takes to win a tournament coming back off after having a procedure done, and it is just a matter of being prepared, getting all my practice time in, making sure my shots are how I want them, trying to understand what my misses might be,” Woods said.

Other than the posts, I do have more evidence that even if you don’t admit it, you’re following along. Yesterday I was called Sam a couple times…

I’m going to assume that I’m being mistaken for the Golf Guru himself, Sam Weinman, my co-author on this blog, and not in reference to my golf swing’s uncanny resemblance to the late great Sam Snead. Although that would be nice if it were true…

Like the name? That’s the term I’m coining for the Section 1 boys golf championship, especially after all that transpired yesterday.

I’ll start with Marisa Kamelgarn. It goes without saying that a girl winning the BOYS championship is a remarkable feat, but a few things make it even more amazing.

A. She shot a 75 on a brutal golf course playing well over 6,600 yards. For a point of reference, the LPGA’s Corning Classic this week is being played on a course measuring 6,223 yards. That’s the LPGA!

B. That 75 tied with Brewster’s Mike Miller for the low round of the day and it included a an even-par 36 on the back nine.

C. After waiting for the leaders to finish she had to tee it up again in a playoff against Arlington’s Andrew Graham, who made last year’s state team. With a big crowd watching, she striped her tee shot and wound up making a fantastic up-and-down for par and the win.

D. She’s only a junior.

But there were plenty of other crazy things happening. Some great and some that were tough to watch.

Miller, the top player by average during the regular season, looked done after an opening triple bogey and a front-nine score of 6-over 41. That gave him nine-hole scores of 40, 41, 41 to start the tournament, but he pulled it together for a flawless back nine. He birdied No. 10 and No. 12 and had pars on all seven other holes for a 2-under 34 to finish in a third place tie and make the state team easily.

Then there was the Mark Mumford issue. The Rye junior didn’t find out his fate until well after his final round when it was established that his score on the 7th hole would go down officially as an 8 instead of a 4.

If you haven’t heard, what happened is he hit his tee shot well left and in a wooded area where it appeared his ball was gone. Frustrated, he decided to hit another tee shot instead of looking for his first ball. But since the area the first ball went was actually marked as a hazard and since he didn’t properly declare the second ball a provisional for a lost ball, he automatically had to play the second ball even though he found the first ball.

But Mumford picked up the second ball and played the first ball making a four. When it was suggested he play out both balls just in case, he placed his ball back (a 1-stroke penalty) and made an 8 from there. After the round, coaches, the club pro and even the USGA was consulted, and it was ruled that the 8 would count. Unfortunately for the Rye junior, that left him one shot shy of a playoff for the last state team spot instead of being comfortably in.

It’s a shame because Mumford clearly deserves to be on this team. He lost the Section 1 Championship last season by a shot and went onto miss All-State honors by a single shot as well. Hopefully, he along with all the other golfers will learn from this incident though.

Stephen Scialo, a favorite going in, also had a tough day that began with a disastrous 8 on the first hole (If you ever play Hollow Brook, do not, I mean do not go into the cavernous right fairway bunker. This bunker also did Graham in during the playoff). An all-state player last year, he nearly pulled off a miracle when he hit his approach shot to 1-foot on the 18th hole. But the closing birdie wasn’t enough as he missed that playoff for the final spot by one shot.

Harrison’s Andrew Lichtenauer suffered the same fate, winding up with a two-day total of 161. The senior, who made states last year, probably had the most unfortunate finish of all with back-to-back 8s on 15 and 16 that were mainly caused by his ball hanging up on the side of a hill several times. His tee shot on 15 wound up in a spot marked off as a nature preserve as well meaning he had to take a penalty and even when he took the drop he ended up with a terrible side-hill lie. Lichtenauer was one of many players who felt the sting of not being familiar at all with this beautiful but treacherous course.

Two other players who just missed making it were Mamaroneck’s Hayden Novikoff and Pelham’s Andrew Emerson. Emerson, really rallied on day two with a 77, including a 36 on the back nine.

But back to some happier endings, New Rochelle’s Dylan Newman, one of the first-round leaders, nearly let it slip away, but gutsy up-and-downs for par on 17 and 18 got him to an eighth place finish.

In total, six first-time state qualifiers made the team. Remarkably, three of those players come from Mahopac in Kamelgarn, Luke Feehan and Joe Raitano. The Indians matched Rye’s incredible feat from last year and will have 1/3 of the team going to Cornell.

Drew Clayton (Somers), John Casey (North Rockland), and Stu Kaufman (Byram Hills), who defeated Scarsdale’s David Spiro by nearly acing the third hole in a sudden-death playoff for the final spot, round out the list of newcomers.

So to wrap up, my predictions were pretty bad, while others did better. I sabotaged Miller by picking him to win it all at the beginning and then completely hexed Mumford by predicting him to win before round two. Once again, my apologies.

I was correct in saying at least one Mahopac golfer would make the state team, but I never saw this coming. Not only did the Indians have the winner, but all three of their players finished within two shots of the lead. I also correctly predicted Mike Miller would make the team, but he definitely went a more dangerous route than I could have imagined by turning it on for the back nine after a rough front.

Meanwhile, other May Madness predictions from Jon Renza and the Somers insider, who said Clayton would make the team, were pretty on point. Renza was correct in saying someone might be able to shoot a 74 and that those who didn’t know the course well were in for a long day.

I certainly learned a lot about the gorgeous course from just watching it. And if I ever have the fortune of getting on, I’ll be sure to load up my bag with extra golf balls.