Big numbers cost Hodag golfers at Black River

Rhinelander’s chances for a Great Northern Conference golf title this spring effectively came to an end Monday as the Hodags found trouble, and lots of it, at Black River Golf Course in Medford.

The Hodags shot 356 as a team and finished fifth in the fifth leg of the GNC tournament. That, coupled with Lakeland’s win, moved the Hodags nine points adrift in the conference standings with three matches to play. Rhinelander faded to five points behind second-place Mosinee. 

Big numbers affected all five Hodag starters. Collectively, the Hodags had 27 holes of double bogey or worse among the 90 holes they collectively played, and only two of the golfers managed to break 90 on the day.

“We just had big numbers. The boys got big numbers and then they couldn’t shake it. They just kept doing it,” Hodag coach Adam Schmidt said. “Whatever could go wrong with big numbers went wrong. Kids couldn’t hit the ball straight and they would hit in the woods and it was rough. It was really just rough.”

Even though his card included four double bogeys, sophomore Grant Gremban avoided any score worse than a double and had eight pars and two birdies on the day as he shot 82 and was the only Hodag to place inside to top 10, taking eighth. 

Senior Dylan Shefveland, Rhinelander’s No. 5 golfer, also flirted with his first top-10 in conference play, but finished bogey-double-double coming in to shoot 88, placing 13th — three strokes out of the points-paying positions.

“Grant had ran a bunch of pars together and Dylan played really well. Shooting 88 out of our five-man, that was awesome,” Schmidt said, noting that Shefveland had to wait for a significant logjam to clear on the par-5 fifth before completing his final three holes. “He was just chugging along, getting pars and a few bogeys in there and all of a sudden it’s like, boom, he went 5 over. But it’s still, he played really good. So from a five-man, that really helped us out.”

Otherwise, it was a day littered with pitfalls for the Hodags. Chase West shot 91 and most of his troubles could be pinned on the par-5 fifth hole, which the players played twice Monday with Black River being the only nine-hole course in the conference tournament rotation. West, playing it as his second hole of the day, made a 10 there the first time around and then made an eight the second time. He also had a triple bogey his first time around on the seventh and on his last hole of the day, the par-4 third, to shoot 91. 

Blake Petroff’s round included four double bogeys to go along with three triple bogeys over his final seven holes to shoot 95. Hank Kowieski was five over through his first eight holes, but made an 8 on his ninth-hole, the par-4 sixth, and didn’t make a par the rest of the way. He finished with two double bogeys and three triple bogeys over his last five shots to shoot 96.

“The scores all around were actually were actually pretty high,” Schmidt said, noting only five golfers broke 80 on the day. “It was funny, our guys, I don’t think our guys had any internal OB (out of bounds). They would hit their tee shot good, and then they’d pull the approach shot, and it would go OB. I don’t know if they were trying to cut the corner or whatever on some those dog legs, but they’d hit it in the woods. Then, from there, it just compounded.”

Northland Pines’ Sam Shrock shot 75 to take medalist honors by two strokes over Lakeland’s Talan Pockat and Davis Kock. 

Despite finishing outside the top 10, West held on to seventh in the individual standings with three rounds remaining and Gremban moved up one spot to eighth. Petroff dropped to 14th in the standings and Kowieski fell to 16th. The top 15 players at season’s end will earn all-conference honors. 

Rounds 6 and 7 of the conference tournament took place at Northwood Golf Club in Rhinelander Wednesday and Trout Lake Golf Club in Arbor Vitae on Thursday, both concluding after press time for today’s edition. 

The Hodags will play a non-conference invite at St. Germain Golf Course this afternoon and wrap up the conference season Monday, May 18 at Indianhead Golf Course in Mosinee. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].