For Glenbrook North, It's Mission Accomplished in Golf

 (GBN) finished fourth in state last year, but it became a distant memory as the team focused on its main goal of the new golf season: winning the conference title.

The Spartans stood out among the field at the Central Suburban League North meet Monday at Glencoe Golf Club to take the conference crown. Thanks to a 5-0 dual record in the regular season, GBN won the title outright.

In gusty and rainy conditions, the Spartans totaled a 302 to beat Highland Park by 10 strokes. Deerfield took third with a 329. Spartan junior Nick Jan was the medalist with an even par 72.

Coach Justin Gerbich said the his Glenbrook North golfers did well to play through the hard rain in the first five or six holes. He had high praise for both his team and the conference as a whole.

“I think it’s the best conference in the state,” Gerbich said. “We have a lot of good teams. It was a tough day. You could tell by where the scores were at how hard it was, so I was happy with what we shot.

“Today was nice to play in this type of weather because it’s a good test for what could possibly come up in regionals and sectionals,” he added.

Including Jan, had four of the top five rounds of the day. Jon Goldstein took third with a 76 and Brian Ohr and Harrison Marick came in right behind him with 77s. Sophomore Nick Hardy’s 79 didn’t count toward the team total, but earned him ninth in the conference. Jae Lee (84) and Jack Nellis (86) rounded out the team's scorecard.

Jan’s 72, which included a 34 on the back nine, was a personal best at the course and came at a good time. The junior thinks the conference title can be a springboard to bigger things for the team.

“The goal is to win it all,” Jan said. “Our regional and sectional will have the same teams in it so winning conference kind of was a test.

“I think if we can [win] here, we can win all the way up at state,” he said.

Deerfield and Highland Park will join along with quality teams from Stevenson and Glenbrook South at the Deerfield Golf Course for the regional next Tuesday. Before the Spartans get ahead of themselves, they celebrated winning something they set out to at the beginning of the season.

“It’s really nice because our coach really wanted to win and we all wanted to win,” Ohr said. “It’s nice to finally feel that we’re the best of our conference. Mission accomplished basically.” 

The Spartans have built an impressive season resume, including shooting even par at an early season tournament, and could be in line to surpass the successes of a year ago. However, Gerbich wouldn’t say this year’s team was better.

“We’re different than last year, and we didn’t win conference but it’s not that we didn’t win conference because we were bad,” the coach said. “Highland Park was really good last year too.”

has a pair of invites before the regionals, the first of which will be Friday at Green Acres Country Club hosted by Highland Park.