RHS golfers finish sixth in season Wisconsin Dells opener

The Rhinelander High School golf team got onto the course for the first time this season Monday and Tuesday and, despite less than optimal conditions, showed plenty of promise for the upcoming season.

Rhinelander shot a cumulative 36-hole score of 676 strokes to place sixth out of 12 teams in the Randolph Invite in Wisconsin Dells. The Hodags were sixth after shooting an opening round of 342 Monday at Trappers Turn Golf Club and followed that up with the fourth-best score on Tuesday, shooting 334 at Christmas Mountain Village Golf Course. 

“We were the only team that this was their first match, that (hadn’t) played on grass,” Hodag golf coach Adam Schmidt said. “Everyone else has been playing on grass the last two weeks. It was good to see we can throw some scores (together). The boys are very excited. They know they can shoot better. They know they can get lower.” 

Even with projected No. 1 golfer Sam Schoppe unavailable for the tournament, the Hodags still played well. They beat the only other GNC school in the field, Medford, by 21 strokes as the Raiders finished seventh. Rhinelander also saw two Division 1 regional opponents as Wausau West placed third with a 656 and Merrill was fourth at 660.

Sophomore Hank Kowieski finished as Rhinelander’s low man for the 36-hole tournament, placing 14th overall with a two-day total of 165. Kowieski was tied for 16th after an opening round 83 and then shot 82 on Tuesday, which was tied for the 11th-best round of the day. 

“Hank played really good both days,” Schmidt noted.

Hank’s older brother, senior Brody Kowieski, finished tied for 19th with a 171. He was tied for 14th after an opening round 82 but shot 89 on Tuesday with a round that included a sextuple-bogey 11 after finding trouble on his fifth hole of the day, the par-5 second. 

“Brody struggled a little bit first day and then today, he struggled a lot,” Schmidt said. “He hit two balls out of bounds and tried to pound a 3-wood up there and pushed it right, into the trees. Christmas Mountain, the course was pretty tight. You had to hit good shots. It didn’t really leave lots of opportunity for errors. You had to keep it pretty tight. It wasn’t long, but it was very tight.”

Sophomore Chase West, who worked into the No. 5 spot of the lineup at the end of last year, was third on the team with a total of 172. He shot 88 on Monday and followed that with an 84 on Tuesday. Junior Blake Petroff shot 174 with rounds of 91 and 83 and freshman Grant Gremban made his varsity debut, also finishing at 174 with rounds of 89 and 85.

“Chase stepped it up. He started playing better. Blake struggled the first day and started playing better today,” Schmidt said. “It was good to see what Grant could do. He’s a good player a nice kid. He’s got a nice swing. That definitely shows he can do it. I think we’re definitely going have a strong six players. I think they’ll probably be fighting back-and-forth for top five. That’s good. That breeds that competitiveness.”

Rhinelander managed no round worse than 91 despite cool and windy conditions both days. 

“It was so windy. It was just ridiculous how windy it was,” Schmidt said. “Today was cold. When we teed off, I think it was like 36 and there were like 20 MPH winds pretty much all day, and then would gust every once in a while to 30.”

Regardless, Schmidt said it was a positive for the team to get onto the course a week earlier than it would during a typical spring. 

“It was a fun event. It was good for the kids to get out and play. Normally we’re playing (for the first time) next week. It was good to have it a week earlier, get a little more warmed up and get more golf for the kids,” he said.

Rhinelander is back in the Dells next Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the nine-team Mosinee Open that will be contested at Wild Rock Golf Course. Five of the seven Great Northern Conference teams are scheduled to attend, with Antigo and Tomahawk serving as the lone exceptions.  

In the meantime, Schmidt said this week’s opener gave the Hodags a sense of what they need to focus on at practice.

“We’ve got to work on our chipping,” he said. “We struggled with that as a team, just that touch around the green because we haven’t had an opportunity to practice that. At least we know where we got to tackle for next week.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].