Boylan senior Cooper Watt made history by repeating history.
And improving on history.
Fifty years ago, the NIC-10 golf tournament switched from 18 holes to 36 days. Through 49 years, no golfer had ever won the tournament more than twice. Until Watt made it a three-peat Saturday by shooting a 5-under-par 67 at Park Hills East in Freeport. Coupled with his 72 Friday at Park Hills West, that gave him a 14-stroke victory over Guilford’s Andrew Carey, who also finished second last year.
That 14-stroke victory margin broke the previous record of 13 by Guilford’s Brad Benjamin, the only Rockford golfer to ever play in The Masters or make the cut at the US Open.
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“That’s an amazing accomplishment,” Boylan coach John Canova said. “There’s nothing I can say for that. That speaks for itself. Anything else would be an injustice in words.”
Watt didn’t win the NIC-10 as a freshman. He was eighth that year, when Boylan teammate TJ Baker not only won conference, but also won the Class 2A state title with the second-lowest score in the history of the IHSA state tourney. But once Baker graduated, Watt won by eight strokes as a sophomore, nine strokes as a junior and now 14 as a senior.
Those are the first-, fourth- and fifth-largest victory margins in NIC-10 history.
“It feels really good to do something that nobody has ever done,” Watt said of winning his third title and doing so in a commanding fashion to help Boylan win his sixth consecutive team title. “It reinstates to me that the hard work paid off.
“It’s a confidence thing that will help me at the next level. If I can do as I did the last two days at conference and separate myself, hopefully, I can do that at regionals and sectionals and state coming up. It gives me extra confidence.”
Boylan begins regional play Wednesday at Marengo Ridge.
Boylan freshman Cole Beto shot 79-80—159 to finish third overall, while Andrew Larson (164) tied for sixth and Cameron Schwarzbach (169) tied for ninth. The Titans wound up with a perfect score of 36 under the system that gives schools one point for each dual-meet victory, plus one point for each team they beat on the first day of the conference tourney, the second day and for the final score in the tourney. Boylan shot a 629.
Hononegah was second with 31 points and a 655 score, followed by Guilford with 28 points and a 678 and Freeport with 23 and 699 strokes in the tourney.
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Hononegah put three golfers in the top six — Landen Seymour (161), Jack Kitzman (162) and Dylan Hyde (164) but still finished 26 strokes back. Twenty-two of those strokes were the margin Watt had over Hononegah’s top golfer.
“We were hoping to do a little bit better, but they are tough to beat,” Hononegah coach Ken Lewis said. “(Cooper) is a nice player. He’s been a nice player for four years and he keeps getting better. It’s extremely tough to beat them when he’s so sharp.”
Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and three years covering the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.
Largest victory margins in NIC-10 boys golf tournament history
| Golfers, school | Year | margin |
| Cooper Watts, Boylan | 2022 | 14 |
| Brad Benjamin, Guilford | 2004 | 13 |
| Mike Spielman, Freeport | 1999 | 12 |
| Dirk Ohlson, Guilford | 1978 | 10 |
| Cooper Watts, Boylan | 2021 | 9 |
| Cooper Watts, Boylan | 2020 | 8th |
| Jerry Vickers, Freeport | 1976 | 8th |
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