Hodag golfers take third in the Dells, tops among GNC schools

The way the Rhinelander High School golf team played April 16 and 17 in Wisconsin Dells was an early, but promising indicator for the team’s aspirations this season.

The Hodags shot 667 and took third overall in the 12-team Mosinee Invite at Wild Rock Golf Course. 

Rhinelander shot its lowest round of the season, a 327, in the opening round and backed it up with a 340 in the final round.

The event capped a whole week playing and practicing in the Dells for the team. Coach Adam Schmidt said some of the offseason rust started to disappear, especially by the end of the week.

“We spent a lot of time on Wednesday, we spent three hours putting and chipping and hit the range, so like there’s, everybody’s putting was pretty good,” he said. “It was good to go out and get that practice Wednesday, and I think, you know, it kind of attributed to some of that.”

Junior Chase West posted two of the best tournament rounds of his career as he finished tied for third overall in the field. West opened with a career-best 78 in the first round and followed it with a 79 on Friday as his two-day total of 157 finished seven strokes out of first.

West had it going early in both of his rounds. He was even par through his first nine holes on Thursday, before making bogeys on the 16th and 18th holes — his 10th and 12th holes of the day. He played his final four holes in 4-over to settle for a 78.

West started on the 18th in the second round and, after a bogey, went out and played the front nine in 37 to sit at 2-over through 10 holes. He birdied the 10th before fading again toward the finish line, with four bogies and a double over his final seven holes.

“Chase was leading the charge, so that was awesome,” Schmidt said. “He really kept the big numbers down. He was just getting up and down for par. He played pretty decent golf. I mean, a couple of bogies. I saw him, and we talked about it, and he’s like he just made a mistake, and limited to one mistake. He just made good choices.”

Hank Kowieski was second on the squad as he finished 22-over for the meet. He fired an 82 in the first round and an 84 in the second round to tie for 13th overall. Grant Gremban finished 18th with a total of 169 after rounds of 81 and 88. Blake Petroff shot 181 to finish 30th with rounds of 86 and 95.

“Hank played some decent golf. He was working on himself when we followed him around. He worked out a few things and Hank was, you know, playing good golf, so that’s good to see,” Schmidt said. “Even Grant play decent golf, so it was good to see the whole team, see what they can do. Blake struggled the last day with putting.”

Senior Dylan Shefveland again held down the No. 5 spot for Rhinelander, posting rounds of 94 and 89 to finish 33rd at 163. Schmidt said Shefveland has likely locked himself into that spot for conference play, after none of the JV golfers the Hodags brought down broke 100 in the opening round. 

“I think Chevy (Shefveland) probably will dominate the five spot for a while until we can see what those other JV boys will do … He played well. He shot 89 (Friday). So that was good for him,” he said.

The Hodags were the best among five Great Northern Conference teams in the field, including defending conference champ Lakeland. Rhinelander finished five strokes ahead of fourth-place Mosinee and was eight shots clear of Lakeland, which struggled to a 354 in on day 1 but came back with a 321 on day 2 — the best of any team in the field. 

“That was kind of a surprise, but it was pretty exciting to see that we beat those guys, so that was good,” Schmidt said. “This is just a start. They’ve only played four times up to Friday. So that’s good. It should get better from here.”

The GNC season will get under way Friday at Merrill Golf Club.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].