Independence golf coach Mark Echstenkamper liked what he saw out of the Blue Devils in the first full week of the 2017 season.
The Blue Devils closed out the week with a seventh-place finish at the Trinity Invitational at Ironwood Golf Course on Friday.
“I was happy this week,” Echstenkamper said. “Every day our team scores went down and the guys got better. That’s encouraging.”
A day after finishing second at the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division preseason tournament the Blue Devils shot a 340 at Ironwood.
Carson Bianco shot a team-low and season-best 80 while Ryan Zygmunt and Andrew Teribery carded an 84 and 85, respectively. Tyler Sagi finished with a 91 and Sam Spacagna came in with a 92. Jon Rydzinski shot a 107 for the Blue Devils.
“Bianco and Zygmunt had their best rounds of the year, so that was encouraging,” Echstenkamper said. “They both played solid golf today. I think all of our guys would have shot better if we didn’t have the 45-minute rain delay with five or six holes to go. All of them had some issues as soon as they got back on the course in terms of focus and stuff like that.”
Bianco credited his short game for leading to the low score.
“I would have to say my putting was great all-around today,” he said. “I one-putted very many holes, which really helped with my score. I was also striking my irons fairly well during the beginning of my round. When the rain came I had lost my rhythm slightly but I came back with a par to start after the delay. Although I would have liked to finish as well as I started, the rain made that a little more difficult. But, there’s really nothing you can do about that besides improve your rain game, and mine could use some practice. My score today will hopefully give me a confidence booster to start of the season well with my matches next week.”
The Blue Devils play Hawken on Monday, Beachwood on Tuesday then open CVC play at Berkshire on Wednesday.
