May 14, 2018 at 11:59 a.m.
Twite leads Hodag golfers in pair of rounds
Twite leads Hodag golfers in pair of rounds
The junior led the RHS golf team in a pair of matches over the weekend, shooting 81 Friday in the fourth leg of the Great Northern Conference golf tournament at Northwood Golf Club and following it up with a 79 Saturday in the Bluejay Best Ball Invite at Merrill Golf Club.
As a team, the Hodags finished about where they have as of late. Rhinelander placed fifth in its home leg of the conference tournament with a 366 and followed that up with a sixth-place finish Saturday with a round of 356.
Despite struggles with the putter, Twite posted a steady round with two birdies and six pars as he shot 9-over at Northwood and tied for fifth place on the day. He backed it up Saturday with his first sub-80 round of the spring and a fourth-place finish.
"He played pretty well, kept the ball in play, hit fairways, hit greens, made smart shots and just played well all around," Schmidt said.
Zach Olds shot 89 on Friday and tied for 14th. He followed that up with an 88 on Saturday.
"He had some issues. I watched him, he was hitting the ball great and then he'd get up and three-putt," Schmidt said of Olds' Friday round. "Every time I watched him, he parred or bogey, but he said he made a few mistakes and had a couple of big numbers. That's the difference between an 81 and an 89 really. Nick didn't have any huge numbers, but Zach had a few big numbers."
Devon Gaber shot matching 93s Friday and Saturday. Will England shot 103 and Nathan Lawrence shot 111 to round out the team Friday.
Jacob Mahner carded a 96 Saturday as the fourth and final man for the unique Merrill event that pairs members of the same team together in a best-ball format. Twite and Olds combined to shoot 77 in the best-ball tournament while Gaber and Olds shot 82.
Friday's round of 366 was about 10 strokes higher than Rhinelander has shot over its last few rounds, but that seems to be the norm around Northwood's tight, tree-lined layout.
"Statistically we always shoot higher (at home). That's just how it is," Schmidt said. "It was tough today. The greens really rolled true. They were really fast today. We didn't putt that great as a team, but neither did anybody else."
Saturday's non-conference round was beneficial in a couple of ways. Not only did the Hodags get a round in on the venue for this year's Division 1 regional tournament, with a number of Wisconsin Valley Conference schools in attendance the Hodags played a number of their regional opponents as well.
"They played it exactly like they would at regionals," Schmidt said. "They played the ball down (as opposed to preferred lies in the fairway). This is what we're going to see at regionals. I told them to take notes and think about what you're going to hit. We played the blue tees. We're going to play the blue tees at regionals. Everything we did today is just like what we're going to do at regionals."
The Hodags will have a busy week this week as they close out Great Northern Conference play. The fifth leg of the conference tournament is set for today at Timber Ridge Golf Club in Minocqua, the penultimate round will be held Thursday at Eagle River Golf Course and the conference finale will take place Friday at Inshalla Country Club in Tomahawk.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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