AGAWAM — Northampton teammates Asa Geller and Jason Cooper were fighting their way down the par-5 sixth hole at Oak Ridge Golf Club.
After crossing the stream with his second shot, Geller’s approach ran up the fairway, but fell short of the green.
Cooper’s approach, meanwhile, landed in the rough, short and to the right of the green. His first chip fell short and stayed in the rough. His second flew the flag, but stayed on the green.
Standing off the green, Geller took a few looks at the pin and laid a chip short. It rolled up and dropped in the hole for a round-closing birdie.
It was a bright light on a so-so round for the Blue Devils, who finished tied for 13th in the PVIAC Boys Golf Invitational.
“I was just trying to get it as close to the hole as I could to make par,” Geller said. “Luckily it went in. I’ll take a birdie.”
Geller and Cooper combined for an 11-over 81 (39-42) in the best-ball format.
“It was really fun; I never played best ball before,” Cooper said. “It’s nice if you have a terrible hole and your teammate has a good hole, the round isn’t over. You can still put up a good score.”
The Monson duo of Mason Dumar and Cam Kratovil won with an even-par 70 (33-37). Southwick’s Matt Garrity and Ben Cleland (36-36) tied Minnechaug’s Peter Wurst and Angelo Fiore (34-38) for second.
Amherst Regional’s Evan Rutherford and Eli Kayser-Hirsh finished with a 79 (40-39). The pair was 11th.
“We played pretty well as a team,” Rutherford said. “We gave ourselves a lot of looks for birdie, we just couldn’t convert any of them. We had a lot of just right there birdie putts. Nothing really dropped for us today.”
It was the second straight year with best-ball format. It’s a departure from the regular season where teams play either match play or stroke play. Best ball allows for more strategy.
Tournament officials also allowed for players to lift, clean and place due to the wet conditions.
“That was a big advantage,” Kayser-Hirsh said. “If not, scores would have been way higher.”
Smith Academy teammates Dan Cavanaugh and Carter Woodward finished 12th with an 80 (41-39).
“We bogeyed a lot of the same holes, which was kind of a killer,” Cavanaugh said. “Other than that, we did pretty well on the par 3s.”
It was the first best ball for Cavanaugh and Woodward. Cavanaugh said the pair would try to have one player two-putt, while the other gave it a ride at the hole.
“You have to think about strategy way more,” Woodward said. “When you play by yourself it’s just the best shot you can hit every time, where here you have to think about putting, like he said.”
South Hadley and Frontier Regional are both undefeated on the season. They play each other at Cherry Hill Golf Course in Amherst on Friday, then again on Oct. 18 at The Ledges in South Hadley.
The teams got an early look at one another on Thursday as Billy Scott and Will Ortyl of South Hadley were paired with Mikey Corduff and Bryan Baumann of Frontier.
Call it a draw.
Both teams tied for 13th with 82s. South Hadley went 44-38, while Frontier shot 41-41.
Hampshire Regional teammates Evan Boyle and Dan Kelly tied for 18th with an 88 (46-42). The pair kept it light during the round.
“You got to stay loose and have fun,” Kelly said. “We’re not sitting in class right now.”
Hampshire triple-bogeyed the par-4 ninth, but came back with a birdie on the par-4 10th.
“We played pretty well from there on out,” said Boyle, who had the drive, chip and putt for a 3.
“Three good shots in a row,” he added.
Hopkins Academy’s Alvin Li and Connor Asselin tied for 20th with a 90 (44-46).
Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com. Follow on Twitter @mikemoranDHG.