May 31, 2023 at 1:07 p.m.
Golf: Schoppe survives closing double to make state
Hodags take 5th at sectionals
Golf: Schoppe survives closing double to make state
Luckily for Schoppe, RiverEdge Golf Course's treacherous 18th hole still had one more victim to claim.
A double bogey by River Falls' freshman Ryan Swanson at the par-4 home hole moved Schoppe into ninth place in the Marshfield D1 sectional and, more importantly, into the last of the three state qualifying spots reserved for players who were not already on a qualifying team.
It was the first state qualifier that coach Adam Schmidt has had in his 11 seasons as RHS golf coach.
"It was definitely a ringer of emotion. Sam plays everything pretty cool, but I was just like, 'Oh my God," Schmidt said.
Schoppe is Rhinelander's first state golf qualifier since at least 2007, which is as far back as individual online records indicate. The Hodags last made it to state as a team in 1990.
Rhinelander was nearly in position to break the latter trend on Tuesday but struggled collectively on the back nine, shooting 336 overall to take fifth in the field of eight, 14 strokes behind Lakeland for the final team qualifying spot.
Schoppe was in position to make qualifying much easier as he sat at 6-over on the tee of the 389-yard closer that doglegs left over water to an elevated green. Schoppe blocked his tee shot right, but was able to cross the river and get up near the green in two shots. A poor chip left him off the green in three. From there, a chip and two putts yielded a double bogey, dropped him back to an 8-over par 80 and left him wondering if that score would be good enough to even force a playoff for the final spot.
"At that time I'm like, there's no way he's going to go. The kids are like, he's still got a chance. Sam's like he didn't think he got in either," Schmidt said.
By that point of the proceedings, Eau Claire Memorial and Lakeland were comfortably positioned to secure the team qualifying spots and Wausau East's Cooper Bjerke sat at 1-over through 14 holes, leaving the battle for the final two individual transfer spots between Schoppe and two River Falls players - Aidan Carufel and Swanson.
Carufel, as River Falls' No. 5 man, played in the foursome directly behind Schoppe and bogeyed the par-3 17th to drop to 7-over. A bogey or worse on the home hole would have given Schoppe a chance at a playoff for the final spot but Carufel parred the last to come in with a 79.
Then attention turned to Swanson, who was three groups further back and sitting at 5-over with four holes to play. He bogeyed the par-4 15th, parred the 16th but then dropped a shot on 17 to also sit at plus-7 on the final tee box. Schmidt said Swanson missed his tee shot out to the right and was forced to layup short of the water. Swanson then put his third shot in a greenside bunker and failed to get up and down for a bogey that would have forced a playoff, instead finishing with a double bogey and an 81.
Schoppe played the front nine in 38 and his only two major hiccups on the back were a triple bogey on the par-3 13th, and his double at the last.
Schmidt said after Schoppe parred the par-5 14th to stay at plus-6, the situation was pretty evident heading to the par-4 15th.
"I said, 'I don't know how else to say this, but we need one birdie and you need to par out,'" he said.
Schoppe obliged by dying a 25-footer into the front of the cup for birdie on the 15th.
"The putt's hanging right on the edge and I swear to God it was the wind, but it had to go another half rotation and he turned around and he's like, 'Oh (reacting as if it missed),' and it fell," Schmidt said. "That got some more excitement in him."
As a team, Rhinelander sat one stroke ahead of Lakeland for second place at the turn, but things went sour on RiverEdge's back nine, which the Hodags played 28 strokes higher than the front.
Sophomore Brody Kowieski made the turn in 37 but quickly fell out of contention with double bogeys on 10, 11, 13 and 15 as he shot 46 on the back and faded to an 83, three strokes away from having a chance to qualify individually.
"He just struggled. He made a couple of bad shots. He had a couple of doubles. On hole 10 he just kind of came up on the ball and the ball made it just across the river. He hit it in the water and his second drive was perfect," Schmidt said. "It's just golf, you know. He worked really hard and in the beginning it looked like he was going to go, or even the whole team was going to go, but I thought he was going to go for sure, but a couple of bad holes. He played pretty good but had a couple of bad holes."
It was a similar story for freshman Blake Petroff, who made the turn in 38, but suffered doubles on 10 and 11, followed by a triple on the par-5 14th as he shot 87 and faded back to 32nd.
"Hole 10 got to him. He hit a tree, it knocked it down and then he doubled that one and doubled the next one," Schmidt said. "Hit into the trees on the right, that hurt him. He kind of got it back but he played great this year as a freshman as a No. 4. He really grew a lot, improved a lot. He started playing better at the end of the year and helped us out immensely at conference and making it through regionals."
Overall, Schmidt said the second nine played much more difficult as warm, breezy conditions meant the course got faster and firmer as the day went.
"As the wind picked up and as it got hotter, the greens got stupid fast, just stupid fast," he said. "By the afternoon, more and more kids were three-putting from 2 feet, 3 feet. The greens were in pretty rough shape, a lot of dead spots. Your ball, it would hit a dead clump, and it would shoot it left. The kids had to fight that a little today. Everybody had to play the same course, but yeah."
Senior Andrew Henrichs shot 86 on the day, going out in 41 and back in 45. Schmidt said, regardless of how things went on Tuesday, he was proud of Henrichs, who qualified for sectionals individually as a sophomore before being on back-to-back sectional qualifying teams the last two seasons.
"I wanted to be there when he got finished because it was so nice coaching him. He's grown so much and matured so much over the last three years," Schmidt said. "It's pretty neat. I know the end of it wasn't what he wanted, but he handled it really nice and was supportive of Sam. He wants to go down and watch Sam at state and just support him. That's what a true team captain and a true team leader is. He's the epitome of that."
Braden Mork returned to the lineup after missing regionals and shot 101 for the Hodags.
The 97th WIAA state golf tournament will take place this Monday and Tuesday at Blackwolf Run in Kohler. Schmidt said it will be the icing on the cake of a very rewarding year for the Hodag golfers.
"This was a really good group of kids that we had this year," he said. "(Assistant) coach (Carole) Zierden and I are very blessed to have such nice kids. This group right here was a really, really nice group, nice young men, very respectful, honest, had a lot of integrity. It was very fun to coach them and it will be fun to coach Sam at state."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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