Hodag golfers battle breeze, take third at Pines

The Rhinelander High School golf team not only had to battle the rest of the Great Northern Conference, it had to battle Mother Nature as well Friday during the penultimate leg of the GNC tournament at Eagle River Golf Course.

The Hodags wound up in third place, shooting 340 on a blustery day. Winds blew from the southwest at 15-25 MPH most of the round — with gusts in excess of 35 MPH — making for a challenging day on the course.

“Definitely conditions were tough. It was windy, rainy but, all in all, we ended up getting third, got some more points for conference,” Hodag coach Adam Schmidt said.

Junior Blake Petroff fared the best for the Hodags on Friday, carding an 11-over par round of 82 to finish in a tie for seventh place. Petroff was 2-over for the round though his first nine holes after making a birdie on the par-5 12th hole. He played bogey golf the rest of the way but held on to record his first top-10 finish of the season in conference play.

“It was really good to see him get some points tied for seven, so he got three points,” Schmidt said. “It was nice for him to start shooting a little better. You know, he’s definitely capable. It was good to see him because he’s a nice kid and he works hard.”

It was a tale of two nines for senior Sam Schoppe as he shot 85 and missed out on the top-10 by a stroke. He shot even-par 36 on Eagle River’s front nine with birdies on third, sixth and ninth. He shot 49 on the back nine, however, with four double bogeys and a triple on the par-3 18th hole.

Brody Kowieski shot 86 and had to play catch-up most of the round following a quadruple bogey 8 on his second hole of the day, the par-4 sixth. Grant Gremban shot 87 in a round that featured a steady diet of bogeys offset by one birdie on his last hole of the day, the par-5 first. Hank Kowieski shot 89 and had only one par in his final 13 holes.

“Brody and Sam struggled a bit. They had a couple of good holes. Grant kind of struggled with his short game. Hank had like some good holes and then he had a couple bad holes,” Schmidt noted.

While the team struggled on Eagle River’s tight, tree-lined back nine, the more exposed front nine also proved treacherous due to the winds.

“It was just a battle with the wind. I watched, I watched a lot of holes, but one of the big holes (was the) par three, No. 5,” Schmidt said of the short 120-yard, downhill hole that played against a crosswind. “The kids were starting it on the right-hand side ... over the sand trap. And the wind was blowing it to the other sand trap. It was crazy. That was pretty tough, but all in all, like, all the kids had to play in all the same conditions.”

Lakeland shot 322 to defeat Northland Pines by two strokes and, in the process, clinch its seventh consecutive Great Northern Conference title. Ryder Will of Northland Pines shot 5-over 76 to take medalist honors by two strokes over Lakeland teammates Talan Pockat and Jeremy Hensen.

The conference season was set to come to a close Monday as Medford hosted the final round at Black River Golf Course in a match that concluded after press time for today’s edition. 

Entering the final round, Schoppe was the only Hodag golfer in all-conference position, but he dropped from tied for fifth to eighth in the standings after Friday’s round. While Brody Kowieski, Gremban and Petroff have all scored conference points this year, they sat outside the top 15 entering Monday’s finale. Kowieski was 17th, 2 1/2 points out of a two-way tie for 14th. Gremban and Petroff were both tied for 20th, six points out of all-conference contention.

In the team standings, Rhinelander sat one point behind Mosinee for third in the standings.

Rhinelander will play at home Friday in the Hodag Invitational at Northwood Golf Club, the team’s final match before WIAA regionals next Tuesday at Trapp River G.C. in Wausau.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].