North's Nathan Fields takes medalist honors at Arnett Invitational
Apr. 23—The Bob Arnett Invitational began promisingly Saturday morning at Rea Park, with the shotgun start for the boys high school golf tournament bathed in sunshine.
Then the sun went behind the clouds and the wind picked up, making the rest of the day a test for the biggest field yet in the event that honors the former Terre Haute South teacher and golf coach.
"The weather has always been bad on this weekend," recalled Sue McMullen, Arnett's life partner for the last 32 years of his life, who was there as she always is.
"Anytime, on the third Saturday in April, that you can get in a golf tournament, it's a bonus," agreed current South coach Chris Cassell, one of Arnett's former players.
The golfers, making up 22 teams from 16 schools, for the most part were up to the challenge, however.
"We didn't play that bad," noted coach Chuck Payne of Terre Haute North, whose Patriots finished in second place, three shots behind defending champion Bloomington North (which shot 11 strokes better than it had a year ago, Cassell pointed out). "It was kind of a tough day — real windy and cold."
Least affected by the weather may have been North junior Nathan Fields, who'd had one of his best rounds in the Patriots' previous event and bettered that with a 4-over-par 76 on Saturday that earned him medalist honors.
Just doing what he was taught, Fields indicated.
"I was just hitting the fairways, making the putts I needed to . . . doing everything I'm supposed to, tee to green," he said. The weather? "I didn't really enjoy it," Fields admitted. "The wind was a big factor."
Fields had one of just five scores under 80, with Northview's Lane Notter, Cloverdale's Eli Kelley, Bloomington North's Simon Deliyannis and Vincennes Lincoln's Matt Pearison tying for second with 78s.
Kelley led the Clovers to a fourth-place finish, while South was fifth, Greencastle sixth, Northview eighth, Shakamak 12th, West Vigo 13th and Sullivan 17th.
"We're inexperienced, but we've got to do better than that on our home course," Cassell said. "But as I always say after this tournament, it's super early and there's plenty of time to improve."
"These were probably the hardest conditions we've played in for a couple of years," said Nick McCollum, who succeeded Sam Grimes as Northview's coach when Grimes joined the Rose-Hulman staff. "Lane [Notter] shooting 78 was a good score, and we had two freshmen [Lincoln Pierce and Ayden Green] in our top five so this was good experience for them. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how we played."
"The kids played really well considering the conditions," said coach Mike Bailey of West Vigo. "The pieces are starting to fall in place and the rest of the season should line up well for us."
"We played all right," said coach Scott Smith of Shakamak. "We're a young team."
"There were challenges for [the Golden Arrows]," said Sullivan coach Carl Melchert. "The greens were fast and challenging."
