By Kim J. Harmon

They were having trouble keeping the ball in the fairway and they suffered for it.

The Newtown High School golf team dropped a 153-172 decision to New Milford on Tuesday afternoon at the Newtown Country Club and saw their record slip to 5-4 overall. Matches with Jonathan Law, Bunnell and Notre Dame will conclude the 2003 regular season.

The South-West Conference championship tournament will be held Wednesday, May 28, at Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury. Tee off is slated for 7:45 am.

On Tuesday, the Nighthawks were bedeviled by a host of errant drives in the early going. Ben Moore carded a 4-over 38 to lead the way, but Andrew Fiscella finished with a 10-over 44 while Mike Troy and Greg Korotash finished with rounds of 11-over 45.

At the same time, the Green Wave carved up the NCC course. Chris Brooks earned medallist honors with a 2-over 36 but was closely followed by Greg Kaiser with a 3-over 37 and Pat Nelson with a 4-over 38. Zack Jenkins rounded out the Wave foursome with a 17-over 51.