Northwestern golf claims 1st Berkshire League title since 2008, led by Owen Ruwet
WINSTED – Improbably enough, the greatest golf season of Owen Ruwet’s high school career included one of the worst rounds the Northwestern senior ever shot.
In the fourth match of the year for the Highlanders, against Lakeview at the Litchfield Country Club, Ruwet couldn’t do much right. Bogeys accumulated, frustration mounted, and after he took a 10 on the final hole, Ruwet signed for a 14-over-par 49. Ugh.
“It was a rocky start,” he admitted.
A month later, though, Ruwet had turned things completely around. Capping a season that saw him earn medalist honors a dozen times, he shot a three-under 69 at Fairview Farm Golf Course on Oct. 13 to defend the Berkshire League championship he had won as a junior.
While Ruwet had to eke out a one-shot win last year, he rolled to victory this time by 11 shots, shooting the lowest score seen at the BL tournament in perhaps 20 years. It was night and day from that 49 in September.
“It was tough to shoot well all summer and then go out and shoot 14-over,” Ruwet said. “It’s hard (to rebound), but I knew I had the game to do it.”
“It was like a hard reset,” said Northwestern golf coach Tom Hicks. “Owen likes to figure stuff out on his own, which I’m totally fine with. He found what he needed to find, brought it back and set the tone for everybody else.”
Ruwet led the Highlanders, who were 16-0 this fall and 12-0 in the BL, to their first league championship since 2008. Northwestern boasted the top three golfers in the BL tournament with junior Josh Lavoie second at 80 and junior Luca Maiolo third at 83. They won the best-ball team title and the league sportsmanship award, too.
Ruwet’s round featured a phenomenal seven birdies. On No. 3, he lagged his ball from off the green to within tap-in range. On No. 5, he rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt. On the par-five sixth, he chipped to within 10 feet and drained it for birdie.
He bogeyed four holes, including three-putts on both the ninth and 10th holes. But Ruwet shook off those hiccups with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 11th. And he finished with flair, making birdies on the final three holes. His 8-foot putt on the 18th equaled the round of 69 shot by Gilbert’s Adam Vaccari (now a teacher at Northwestern) in 2007.
“I didn’t leave myself an easy putt (on the 18th), but I knew I could make it,” Ruwet said. “It felt really good to see the last putt drop.”
His father, A.J., was formerly the golf pro at Litchfield, so Owen grew up around the game. But he also played soccer up through his freshman year at Northwestern. As a sophomore, he switched to the golf team and took sixth place in the BL.
Only 16 years old, the Colebrook resident plans to attend Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted next fall before deciding where he might play golf in college. He competed in the Division II state tournament Tuesday, hoping to improve on his 13th-place finish of a year ago.
The Highlanders, who returned seven of nine golfers from a year ago, figured this was their best shot to break the title drought. Despite Ruwet’s 49, Northwestern beat Lakeview that day by two strokes for the closest of its 16 wins.
Besides Ruwet, Lavoie and Maiolo, the team includes senior Bode Allyn, junior Nolan Warning, senior Ethan Ferrucci, junior Cali Hohene and junior Ethan Helt, a first-year player.
“They all contributed in one way or another,” Hicks said. And with so many players returning, he added, “The future is bright.”
This article originally published at Northwestern golf claims 1st Berkshire League title since 2008, led by Owen Ruwet.
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