Jerry Jarrell photo Jon Bowman chips from behind the green after hitting his tee shot long on the 175-yard par-3 4th at Hidden Trails Country Club. Bowman posted a nine-hole score of 40 to help lead the 'Cats to a 5-stroke win over the visiting Cape Central Tigers.

Dexter defended its home turf and improved its match record to 7-1 with a win over the Cape Central Tigers at Hidden Trails Country Club Wednesday.

Sophomore Chance Holden led the Bearcats with a round of 1-over-par 37, which was good for medalist honors in the dual match with the Tigers.

Dexter posted a team score (best four rounds) of 166 to defeat the Tigers (171) by five strokes.

Fellow sophomore Jon Bowman carded a round of 40, while senior Dillon Demaree came around in 44. Freshman Blake Cox's round of 45 rounded out the Bearcats' scoring.

"We're getting better scoring from the four, five and six guys this year, but we're still not real consistent," said Dexter coach Eric Sitze, who is in his 13th year as the Bearcats golf coach. "We have some 3-putting issues and some scoring issues, but we're working on that."

Demaree is the only senior member of the team, but Sitze feels he has a good crop of young talent starting to mature into varsity players.

Holden, who finished tied for 34th at state last season as a freshman, is again proving to be on of the better linksters in the area. Bowman, who was Dexter's No.. 2 player last year as a freshman, is starting to cut strokes off his score and Sitze is expecting good things from him as the season unfolds.

Sitze is also looking for junior Matt Miller to return to the form he showed last season in his first year of competitive high school golf.

"Matt (Miller) is not hitting the ball as well as he did last year, but his short game looks much better this year," Sitze commented.

Dexter will be in action again today at Dalhousie Golf Club, weather permitting.