Oct 1, 2015 5 min read

SEWICKLEY – The shaking and sweating Charleroi senior Mike Kondratik experienced during his first varsity golf match three years ago will always stick with him.

On that day at Monongahela Valley Country Club in 2012, Kondratik’s hands were moving so much that he could not keep his club straight. He shot a 59 and struggled with every facet of his game.

“There’s a road by the practice tee – it’s about 50 yards out – at Mon Valley Country Club and he probably couldn’t reach it,” Brian Corrin, Charleroi’s head coach who was an assistant at the time, recalled with a laugh. “To come back and play lights out like he has this year, I’m so proud of him.”

Kondratik was far from shaky Thursday at Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley and continued to assert himself as one of the top golfers in the area. He shot a 4-over-par 74 to finish tied for second at the WPIAL Class AA Individual Golf Championships, qualifying for the PIAA West Region Championship Oct. 19 at Tom’s Run Golf Course in Blairsville and was two strokes behind winner Jason Li of Sewickley Academy.

It is the second time Kondratik has qualified for the regional championships. He won a one-hole playoff to make the cut as a sophomore.

“I’m sad that I didn’t win, but I’m pleased with second,” Kondratik said. “It feels great getting back. I have a lot of confidence moving on.”

Kondratik was one of six local golfers to qualify for the regional. South Fayette senior Alec Lacinski tied for 10th, Burgettstown’s Cody Dobbin and Austin Lis, both students at Avella, finished tied for 10th and 13th respectively, Bentworth freshman Luke Dziak tied for 13th and Carmichaels junior Liam Shea won a one-hole playoff to finish 16th.

Kondratik made a long put on the 335-yard No.4 hole to make par and help his score on the front 9, which included a birdie on No. 5 and three bogeys, the latter the result of struggles chipping on the wet course.

After back-to-back bogeys, his ball sat 35 feet from the pin on the No. 16 green before he sank it for birdie.

“Mike is solid. He absolutely knows how to get the ball up, down and around the track,” Corrin said. “He’s really dug in the past year with the extra work he’s put in on the greens and tees. I’m more than proud of him.”

It was all a part of the plan. Kondratik played a practice round Monday with Corrin and took extensive notes, planning each tee shot, the placement of each bunker and where he could afford to take risks.

Though he wasn’t shaking, that didn’t mean Kondratik was free of anxiety.

“The putter was working hard today,” Kondratik said. “You just want to get a good, solid putting stroke down and make sure you get the speed of the greens down. I got a little nerves coming down the stretch there. I needed to make couple birdies.”

Lacinski, meanwhile, struggled with his short game, having a double bogey on the 424-yard No. 9. He finished strong with pars on three of the final five holes to make the cut for the first time.

“I scrambled well at the end, but it definitely should have been a better number,” Lacinski said. “I didn’t putt that great, but I managed to stick it out toward the end.”

Dobbin, a senior, qualified for the third consecutive year by tying Laciniski, while Lis, a junior, bounced back on the back nine after bogeying six holes on the front to return to the regional.

Dziak, the only freshman to make the cut, never would have guessed he’d be making a trip to Tom’s Run, but a birdie on the 354-yard, par-4, No. 2 helped his cause.

“I played really great today,” Dziak said. “Everything was working for me and it helped that the course was in great shape. It feels so great to make it.”

Shea’s fate came down to one shot and he did not have his coach by his side. Carmichaels head coach Dave Briggs left the hospital yesterday after complications from a medical procedure and could not make the trip, but he was receiving updates.

He was surely pleased when Shea, who shot an 11-over 81, made par on the 424-yard par-4, No. 9 to narrowly defeat McGuffey’s Colin Chapman in a one-hole playoff to decide the final qualifier.

“After the front nine, I didn’t think I’d have any trouble qualifying, but I couldn’t make a shot on the back,” Shea said. “It’s relief to make it again. When you do it when you’re younger, you expect to do it again.”

Chapman is the alternate for the regional qualifier. … Local golfers who missed the cut included Aaron Yorio of Waynesburg and Christian Sadler of Bentworth.