CENTERVILLE — It was a leaderboard that was so jam packed, you’d think a green jacket was on the line.
Much like Rory McIlroy’s thrilling win just two days earlier at The Masters, it was the second shot on the first hole of a sudden death playoff that put Matty Kovacevich in prime position to win the individual title at Centerville’s Redette Invitational. Kovacevich was able to convert the closest approach shot to the green on the first hole at Appanoose Country Club into a winning two-putt par, completing a championship sweep for the host team as Centerville held off Ottumwa by seven strokes with a final team score of 365, securing their third win in as many meets so far this season.
“That was my first playoff that I’ve ever been in,” Kovacevich said. “I just had to relax and take it one shot at a time. I left my second shot just short of the hole. I knew it would be better to leave it just short of the hole than to go too far just because of the position of the pin.”
Kovacevich’s prime position to save par put the pressure on Centerville freshman teammate Taya Belloma and Knoxville junior Caelie Smith, who had matched Kovacevich with a round of 86 in the 18-hole tournament. Smith went just over the green with her approach shot while Belloma was also just off the green, but still in a position to putt.
“My (birdie) putt was really good. It was on line, but it just barely missed the hole,” Belloma said. “It just ran by about six feet.”
Kovacevich, meanwhile, was able to putt uphill for birdie and left a shorter par attempt. Smith missed the longest par attempt of the three in the playoff while Belloma, seeking to extend her Redette teammate on to the ninth tee for a second playoff hole, just missed her par attempt.
“It was definitely a little awkward,” Belloma said. “It’s okay. It’s going to happen.”
In fact, Belloma entered the three-way playoff with more experience than her junior teammate. Before teeing up for the Centerville High School varsity girls golf team this spring, Belloma went head to head with another Redette junior in the Centerville football team’s golf tournament fundraiser taking Gracie Zaputil to a pair of extra holes.
“I ended up winning that one,” Belloma said. “It definitely shows that, as a team, we can go pretty far this season having three golfers that can all push each other to produce the top individual score during any given tournament.”
All told, five players finished with two shots of the top individual score during the Redette Invitational. Just 24 hours removed from a tough day at Briarwood Golf Club during the Ankeny Centennial Jaguar Invitational, Ottumwa teammates Makayla Brown and Peyton Callas made impressive strides to place in the top five at the Redette Invite with Brown’s round 87 representing the top score for the Bulldogs as well as a 23-stroke improvement over 24 hours.
“My issue at Briarwood was my putting,” Brown said. “I knew going into this tournament that I wanted to focus more on my putting. I did that and it helped a lot.”
While Brown’s 23-stroke improvement was impressive, it was trumped by the 45 shots that Callas took off her score from the Briarwood Invite. Callas not only improved on her score of 133 in Ankeny, but reached a milestone by breaking 100 in Centerville finishing with a career-best score of 88 missing out on her first medalist playoff by just two strokes, leaving Callas extremely emotional.
“I just cleared my head after that round at Ankeny. That round was really hard,” Callas said while starting to choke back tears. “I lost a lot of courage during that round, but this round was so good. I had a 44 on the front nine and didn’t know how well I did until I added it up at the turn. All I kept thinking was that I just needed to keep it the same. It was just really exciting.”
As a team, Ottumwa went from finishing 11th at Briarwood with a team score of 442 to shooting 70 shots lower in Centerville nearly defending the title they had won last year at the Appanoose County Country Club. Mackenzie Adkins, who led Ottumwa at Briarwood with a 107, also broke 100 in the Redette Invite finishing with a round of 96 posting 48 on both the front and back sides of the 18-hole tournament.
“The girls understood that we struggled at Ankeny. The weather was not good, the competition was stiff but we also just did not play well,” Ottumwa head girls golf coach Ryan Morgan said. “We talked about flushing it. We can’t control what happened in one round. It was a new day and the girls responded. Three of our five golfers had career lows.
“You can tell just how emotional these girls are. They came back from a tough day and gave a team in Centerville that I fully expect to be in the state tournament a great battle on their home course.”
Davis County finished fourth as a team with a score of 413, led by a round of 94 from Jayden Koenig. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont finished fifth with a score of 426, led by the most impressive back-nine improvement from any golfer in the field as Ella Stevens made a 10-shot stride with a 44 on the back nine to finish with a final 18-hole score of 98.
“I just figured out what not to hit,” Stevens said. “I went back out for the back nine and figured out that I needed to club down on certain shots and club up on others. I was hoping to break 50 on one side and break 100 overall for the round. I was able to accomplish both of those goals.”
