May 24, 2017 at 2:02 p.m.
Hodag golfers done in by home course
Twite misses individual qualification in playoff
Hodag golfers done in by home course
The Hodags shot 373 and finished seventh in the eight-team tournament. Rhinelander missed advancing to sectionals by 12 strokes as Wisconsin Rapids claimed the fourth and final team berth with a 361.
"I always tell the kids when you're playing Northwood, you're playing the course," Hodag coach Adam Schmidt said. "Don't try to beat your opponent, but beat the course. That's what it really comes down to. Today, the course beat us."
Rhinelander's hopes of sending at least one player on to next Tuesday's sectional round were dashed when Wausau East's Michael LaPree made a long birdie putt on the first extra hole to defeat Hodag sophomore Nick Twite in a sudden-death playoff for the last individual qualifying spot. Both shot rounds of 87 and finished tied for 13th overall.
Twite played the tough dogleg left in textbook fashion, taking 3-wood to the corner of the dogleg. He then hit a long iron from about 196 yards away to within 10 feet of the pin and looked to be in prime position to move on when LaPree pushed his second shot to the right edge of the green.
But LaPree curled in his long, downhill putt, while Twite's putt to extend the playoff grazed the edge.
"When you lose something like that, you want to be beaten," Schmidt said. "You don't want to beat yourself. You don't want to have it where you hit your 3-wood in the woods and you took a 5 and the other kid made a 4. The other kids made a miraculous putt. Kudos to him. I teach my kids if they're going to miss it, miss it on the high side. Don't miss it on the amateur side. He missed on the high side, about four inches past. It had enough speed, it just didn't fall."
That was about the only highlight on the day as the Hodags couldn't avoid the big numbers on Northwood's treacherous track. Every player on the team had at least one triple bogey on the score card and overall, the Hodags made 14 triples or worse on the day.
Twite's only big slip-up was a triple on the par-4 fifth hole, but he still made the turn in 7-over 43, aided by a birdied on the par-5 seventh. Twite made only two pars on the second nine, however, and came back in 44.
"The cool thing is he's a sophomore," Schmidt said of Twite. "We've got two more years. There's going to be big things coming from him. He's getting the mental game. He's got the physical game. There's a few things we can work out with his swing. I see no reason why, the next couple years, he's going to be a whole lot better."
Senior Matt Reinthaler was second on the team with a 91. He did not make a par on the front nine as he made the turn in 48.
Reinthaler shot 43 on the back to miss the playoff by four strokes. Zach Olds shot 94 and might have been in the running for the playoff as well if not for a triple on the 14th and a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 17th, part of a second nine 49. Joe Schmitz shot 101 and Gunnar Millot shot 105.
"You think about it, 361 went for a team. We would have had to lose 12 strokes as a team and there were a whole lot of strokes we could have lost," Schmidt said. "If you keep the ball in play, you'll be fine and Northwood is a course where you have to keep the ball in play."
Stevens Point (337) won the tournament, nine strokes ahead of Wausau West. Marshfield finished third (348). Merrill freshman Russell Dettmering shot a sizzling back-nine 32 to finish 2-under for the day and take medalist honors. Wausau East's Matt Tuman (76) and D.C. Everest's Ben Peloquin (84) joined Dettmering and LaPree as individual qualifiers.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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