Team review: RHS golf

Perhaps Rhinelander High School golf coach Adam Schmidt said it best at the end of the 2025 season. 

“It is what it is. Like, you have a bad day. It wasn’t like, it wasn’t one thing. It was a lot of things,” he said.

Schmidt was referencing a round of 89 that ended the season for senior Sam Schoppe in the sectional round of the WIAA tournament. In reality though, that quote could have been used to sum up what was an up and down season for the Hodags. 

Rhinelander began the year with Great Northern Conference title aspirations — and had the talent capable of competing for a championship — but could never seem to find a way to get at least four of their five starters firing on all cylinders on the same day.

The end result was a lackluster fifth-place finish in what turned out to be a very competitive GNC. The Hodags did play some of their best golf in their final two rounds of the season, but even then that wasn’t good enough as the Hodags finished one stroke shy of having a chance to move to sectionals as a team. 

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season. 

Conference struggles

The Hodags started the conference season on the back foot. They shot a 346 and taking fourth on a cold, windy and rainy day at Mosinee’s Indianhead Golf Course to open the conference season and were never quite able to recover. 

The Hodags took second the following day at Inshalla Country Club in Tomahawk, but that was the last time they would contend for a win in conference play. They finished outside the top three in three of the final four conference meets, including a sixth-place finish in the fifth round of the tournament at Minocqua Country Club that put them behind the proverbial 8-ball in the conference standings.

“They just got to play their tails off,” Schmidt said after that round. “Otherwise, we’re going to end up finishing low in conference.”

Bitten by the blowup

Part of the reason for the Hodags’ struggles was the inability to keep double bogeys or worse off their scorecard during the season. Schmidt said that was particularly evident in the conference finale at Black River Golf Course in Medford when the Hodags shot 352, finished fifth on the day and were vaulted by Tomahawk for fourth in the final team standings. 

No one was immune to the struggles on a breezy day in Medford. Grant Gremban and Hank Kowieski had the best rounds of the day, tying for 14th with rounds of 87, but Kowieski had four double bogeys on his card and Gremban had five. 

Blake Petroff had three doubles and a triple on his card as he shot 89. Seniors Sam Schoppe and Brody Kowieski were both in position to perhaps finish in the top 10 before being undone by Black River’s par-4 4th hole late in their round. Schoppe, playing it as his last hole of the day, made a quintuple-bogey 9 there to shoot 89 and finish five strokes out of the top 10. Brody Kowieski made a quadruple-bogey 8 on the hole and followed with a double bogey on his last hole of the day, the par-5 fifth to shoot 91. 

Schmidt said much of the struggles came down to course management and just finding a way to keep the ball in play.

“It’s going to be boring, but, boy, if you shoot 75, you know, boring 75 is a whole lot better than a really exciting 89,” he said.

Postseason

While the Hodags played better in an eight-team regional at Wausau’s Trapp River Golf Course, a back nine fade led the Hodags to miss the sectional cut by one stroke, despite posting a solid round of 325. 

“That was pretty rough,” Schmidt said. “That was kind of a bummer there. For a while it was like, holy cow, we’re going to beat (Stevens) Point and all them, I thought.”

Schoppe made three consecutive bogeys over the final three holes to shoot 42 on the second nine. Brody Kowieski carded back-to-back doubles on the 13th and 14th and then bogeyed the 17th and 18th, but Schmidt said all five players could look back at moments in their round where they could have saved a stroke or two.

“Some holes where we hit driver, you know, or should have laid up or should not. They were like, ‘Oh, so many lip outs,’ but that’s part of golf. I mean is what it is,” he said.

Schoppe shot 79 to qualify for sectionals individual. Petroff shot 81 to get in a two-for-three playoff for the final sectional qualifying positions, but was eliminated on the fifth playoff hole after Merrill’s Connor Waid made birdie.

Schoppe shot 89 a week later in a sectional at Greenwood Hills Country Club in Wausau, missing the state cut by 12 strokes. 

Statbook

Schoppe was the only member of the Hodag golf team to earn all-conference honors, taking 10th in the final conference standings thanks to a win in the second leg of the GNC tournament at Inshalla Country Club in Tomahawk followed by a third-place finish at Bass Lake Country Club in Deerbrook.

Rhinelander had three other golfers score conference points, but finish outside the top 15 in the conference standings, and therefore missed the all-conference list. 

Brody Kowieski, who had a third-place finish in the Hodags’ home conference meet May 12 at Rhinelander Country Club, wound up 18th in the final standings. Grant Gremban and Blake Petroff scored eighth-place finishes at Ishalla and Eagle River, respectively, and tied for 21st in the conference standings. 

Schoppe led the Hodags with an 81.8 scoring average on the season — including postseason play. He was followed by Brody Kowieski (84.5), Gremban (85.1), Petroff (85.3) and Hank Kowieski (86.7). Schoppe was Rhinelander’s top finisher in six of the 14 meets the team played. 

Schoppe led the team in fairways hit and greens in regulation while Gremban had the best putting average on the team.

What’s next

The Hodags will need to reload next spring as they graduated Schoppe and Brody Kowieski from the top of their lineup. 

“Brody is such a nice young man. It’s always nice having him on a team. Sam was a good guy,” Schmidt said. “They were really helpful and they both are very caring young men. They’re really nice, polite men, and were brought up right. So I thank them for the time that we had with them.”

Rhinelander graduated a third senior, Sam Strong, who played on the junior varsity squad this season. 

The Hodags should have a solid starting five, but not much depth behind that, based on who played this spring. Petroff, Gremban, Hank Kowieski and Chase West will return with varsity experience. West averaged 88.8 strokes per round in six varsity starts and had the best scoring average on the JV squad, at 43.6 strokes per nine holes. The Hodags will likely also need to count on senior-to-be Dylan Shefveland and junior-to-be Drake Nelson. Both averaged 45.7 strokes per nine holes in JV play.

“We should have a good team coming back,” Schmidt said. “Hopefully we can pick up a couple freshmen, another freshman. Having Grant (Gremban) this year was awesome. Hopefully we can pick up another freshman like Grant, we’ll be definitely competitive again.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].