April 27, 2023 at 8:16 a.m.
Hodag golf fifth in GNC opener
The Hodags had only one golfer break 90 on the day - sophomore Sam Schoppe tied for sixth with a round of 86 - and took a number of penalty strokes a cool, breezy day. Rhinelander shot 377 as a team, finishing 46 strokes behind first-place Lakeland and two strokes behind Northland Pines for fourth.
"I would say that's pretty uncommon that the four guys would shoot in the 90s like that," Hodag coach Adam Schmidt said. "The guys putted OK. It wasn't terrible. It's just keeping the ball in play and getting up and down."
Andrew Henrichs was 16th on the day, shooting a 95. Blake Petroff and Brody Kowieski each shot 98, tying for 21st. Braden Mork was tied for 34th on the day with a 115. Big numbers were the common theme.
"It's hard when you get big numbers," Schmidt said. "Indianhead is one of those courses where you see it from the road, and you're like, 'Aw, it's not that hard of a course,' but you get a big number it's hard to try to get it back."
Henrichs made a quadruple-bogey 9 on the par-5 seventh hole, his fourth hole of the day, and followed with triple bogeys on holes 8 and 10. Henrichs settled in to shoot 45 on the back nine, but had a 50 on the front. Petroff and Kowieski both found big trouble on the par-5 11th, each taking 10 strokes to play the hole. Kowieski also had a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 13th, this seventh hole of the day.
"Brody struggled. He had lots of holes with some big numbers," Schmidt said. "He just got in trouble with where he hit the ball and wasn't playing his best. Andrew had a couple of big numbers on the front side and the back he kind of eliminated some of the big numbers, hopped on the bogey train for a while there.
"It was very uncharacteristic from Brody and Andrew to shoot high like that. I think getting up in the top three is definitely attainable."
Schmidt noted Petroff had 10 penalty strokes not he day while Mork carded scores of 7 of higher on half of his holes.
Schoppe avoided any major blowups in his round. He took only three double bogeys and carded a birdie on the par-4 fourth hole as he played the front in 41 and the back in 45. That put him in a five-way tie for sixth that earned him three conference points in his GNC debut.
"Sam played OK. He struggled a little off the tee on the front side and then the back he kept the ball in play. He avoided the big numbers," Schmidt said. "He got a birdie on one hole and then the next hole he got a double. I watched him, he was swinging really well. I met up with him on nine and his drive was wide right and I was like, 'just leave your driver in the bag.' After that he just kept the ball in play. That was really good to see from him."
Lakeland (331) edged Medford by seven strokes for the overall title. Mosinee (363) finished third on its home course, followed by Northland Pines, Rhinelander, Antigo (388) and Tomahawk (394).
Lakeland's Gray Wagner and Mosinee's Jett Walters each carded 4-over rounds of 76 to share medalist honors. The pair finished one stroke ahead of Lakeland's Jack Rubo.
The Hodags were in Medford yesterday for an invitational and Black River Golf Course and will return to Medford today for the second leg of the GNC tournament.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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