Warsaw’s boys golf team shows off its hardware after winning the Culver Military Academy Invitational at Mystic Hills in Culver Saturday. (Photos by James Costello)

CULVER — The format of Saturday’s Culver Military Academy Golf Invitational can be a kind of double-edged sword.

With each grouping consisting of a complete team, golfers get an opportunity to play alongside all their teammates, and coaches can watch all of their players throughout the entire round. But there’s also a downside to that.

The format worked better for some teams than others, but no one enjoyed Saturday’s invite at Mystic Hills more than Warsaw, which carded a 299 for the team championship.

“It’s really actually awkward,” said Tigers coach Rich Haddad of the team format.

“One, they’re not used to me advising them a lot because I’m usually just catching them a couple holes in a round just to see how they’re doing, and now I can kind of observe things and make comments. Sometimes it’s like ‘Well, I don’t want your comment’ because it’s happening the whole time because we’re walking the whole time. The other thing is almost like the Ryder Cup feel where you feel a little more pressure to want to do well for your team because they’re all right there. In normal matches you’re out on your own, and you don’t know. But they enjoyed it. They get along great, and they love to play together.”

Luke Delp watches his tee shot during CMA Invite play Saturday. Delp followed up a 1-over 72 round with a birdie on the playoff hole on 10 for the invite low medal.

Warsaw got four scores in the 70s, led by Luke Delp’s low-medalist round of 72.

Delp finished the round tied with South Bend St. Joseph’s Michael Anthony but birdied the playoff hole on 10 to take home the individual title. He drove the green side bunker off the tee, then wedged cleanly about four feet from the pin and drained the uphill putt for the win.

The round represented a continuation of strong play for Delp over the past two weeks after a tough round at the Wawasee Invitational back on April 28 and was likely his best yet this season.

“I’ve had a couple low rounds in the past week, but, yeah, definitely these last couple of weeks have been a bounce-back since South Shore. I’m feeling good about going into NLCs and sectional,” said Delp.

“This is definitely my favorite tournament of the year besides, of course, regionals and state. Going out with the team, just encouraging each other and saying ‘Good shot’ every time is nice. Seeing how your teammates are playing kind of keeps you in the loop and confident.”

“He missed a couple putts out there that I know he was mad at himself about, but to shoot a 72, a 1-over, on a pretty soggy day — we had a long rain delay after one hole and coming out kind of picking them up right away — really impressive day for Luke,” said Haddad. “Probably the best I’ve seen him play this year. Happy for him, for sure.”

Indeed the conditions were miserable at Mystic, and rain and lightning delays halted the round after one hole. Players were forced to wait out the thunderstorm in the clubhouse, but both Goshen and Jimtown opted to leave the tourney early. With prom scheduled for Saturday night and the forecast looking ominous, NorthWood opted out of the invite altogether.

But the long delay and the cold, wet weather seemed to have little effect on the Tigers. Chase Bryon carded 78 behind Delp’s low-medal round, while Sam Yeager and Tommy Meier turned in a pair of 79s. Jacob LaLonde’s 83 was the team’s fifth score at the tourney, which featured special scramble-style scoring where the best four scores on each hole were tallied together to count toward a total, rather than the standard scoring format, where the top four scores are totaled together at the end of the round. The unique scoring system benefitted some teams more than others but saved Warsaw a total of nine strokes.

“To have four guys all shoot in the 70s, a good day today,” Haddad said. “Really even Jacob at 83 is solid. He had a couple of tough holes on the greens putting or he would’ve been in the 70s as well. All the guys really played well, kept the ball in play, minimized some of the big numbers, which is what we’ve talked about all year long.

“With the slow weather start, it’s been great to see them kind of peaking. We’ve talked about wanting to peak when conference rolls, and that’s what is happening right now. Golf is a funny games so you don’t want to be overconfident, but we’re really encouraged by how everybody is playing.”

While the Tigers made the tourney format work for them, Triton struggled Saturday, coming off a 316 and the team championship at the LaVille Invitational the previous week. Brock Watkins paced the team with an 82, followed by Isaac Wall’s 84, Beau Hepler’s 85 and Chase Butler’s 89. Ross Johnson shot 96 in the dreary weather in Culver.

Beau Hepler hits out of a bunker Saturday.

The Trojans’ trouble boiled down to course management, said head coach Jack Carpenter. In particular, Triton’s golfers went off the rails on 10, where they carded a trio of bogeys, and those problems worsened on 11 with a bogey, a double and two triples.

“Our kids do not choose the right clubs,” a frustrated Carpenter said. “On Hole 10 they shouldn’t be hitting driver off the tee, and they refuse to do it and we make three bogeys and we should make no bogeys. It’s the shortest par 4 on the course. We go to Hole 11, they need to put a club in their hand that puts them on the fairway, and they don’t. We’ve got two kids in the hazard, one kid in the woods, and it’s stubbornness not to do the right thing.”

Wawasee turned in a  346 score, meanwhile, but did manage to bounce back on the front side after a tough start on the back nine at Mystic.

“We didn’t play great today. We started off really bad, to be honest. But we finished pretty well,” said coach Steve Coverstone.

Zach Leedy hits a tee shot on 18 at Mystic Hills.

Zach Leedy led the Warriors with a solid 80, and Dillon Drake shot 84 for his team, but Wawasee couldn’t find a third score. Evan Dippon shot 97, Jared Krugman carded 100, and Luke Weisser finished with a 104.

“(Leedy) played solid. He had a little trouble on the greens, but other than that he played pretty good. Good back nine,” said Coverstone.

“Dylan came back with 37 on the front side after kind of a high backside. He’s been playing pretty steady for us.”