Hodag golfers locked in third entering GNC finale

Barring something unusual, the Rhinelander High School golf team went into yesterday’s scheduled Great Northern Conference tournament finale at Indianhead Golf Course in Mosinee knowing it would finish third in the final conference standings.

Back-to-back third place finishes in a pair of conference matches late last week secured Rhinelander’s spot in the pecking order. The team felt better about the Thursday, May 14 performance, as it shot 332 in the penultimate leg of the conference meet at Trout Lake Golf Club in Arbor Vitae. That came on the heels of a 349 in the team’s home conference match the previous day at Northwood Golf Club.

Rhinelander entered Monday’s meet, which was scheduled after press time, with no mathematical chance at first or second. Lakeland owned a half-point lead over Mosinee and sat nine points clear of Rhinelander.

All-conference positioning was the bigger storyline going into the meet. Chase West and Grant Gremban both locked up all-conference spots with their performances on Wednesday and Thursday and, barring a first-place finish from Antigo’s Isaac Buchman on Monday, would be guaranteed spots on the second team as they sat seventh and eighth in the overall standings. 

Blake Petroff got bumped out of the 15th and final all-conference spot Thursday when Merrill’s Jackson Pierce tied for third at Trout Lake, and moved a half point ahead of Petroff for 15th. Hank Kowieski sat 18th and needed a finish of solo seventh or better Monday to have a chance to move into all-conference contention. 

“Individually, there’s a lot to play for, and that should be good,” Hodag coach Adam Schmidt said. “(Thursday), some of the guys that normally earn a lot of the points didn’t finish the top five or top 10. It definitely opened it up to more of the kids to get some better scores and get more points for conference.”

Gremban solidified his all-conference spot with a 5-over round of 77 on Thursday, which was good enough for a third-place tie on the day. He offset bogeys on his opening three holes with three birdies to sit at even par through eight holes. He made three consecutive bogeys after that and closed with bogeys on two of his final three holes.

“Grant really was the star of the show today,” Schmidt said. “He was playing really, really good. He birdied the par 5s. He didn’t have any doubles today. He hit the ball really well. I watched from a couple of holes, and he was going to hit the ball well. He was just getting up and down.”

West also had some offense, with birdies on the par 5s at Nos. 7, 9 and 11 as he sat at one over through his first eight holes. He was tripped up by a triple bogey at 13 and played his final nine holes at 4 over to card an 80.

“Chase was really trying to score a lot of points. He played smart, but he still like, he still went after it,” Schmidt said.

Petroff shot 87 on Thursday, Dylan Shefveland shot 88 and Kowieski carded an 89.

That came on the heels of a so-so day at home Wednesday. West was the only Hodag in the top 10, carding an 83 to tie for sixth. Gremban finished one stroke out of the points in 12th with an 85. Kowieski shot 90, Petroff shot 91 and Shefveland carded a 101.

As was the case in the fifth round at Black River Golf Course in Medford, big numbers plagued the Hodags Wednesday. Rhinelander had 28 holes of double bogey or worse on the day. Petroff was in the running for a top-10 finish, but played his final four holes in nine-over to fall out of contention.

“We just didn’t play very well. We didn’t keep not keep the ball in play, and we had a lot of penalties,” Schmidt said. “There was a lot of penalties. A penalty is not just like a one-stroke penalty. It’s like, it would then put you in a poor mindset, and then it cost them two or three shots.”

St. Germain Invite

    Hank Kowieski putts on the 11th hole at Trout River Golf Club during a GNC golf match Thursday, May 14. Kowieski tied for first in the Hodags’ non-conference invite at St. Germain Golf Course Friday, May 15. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

The Hodags shot 335 on Friday and took the victory in the five-team Northland Pines Invite held at St. Germain Golf Course. Rhinelander had four in the top seven overall as it defeated Tomahawk by 17 strokes for the title. 

“Getting the W is awesome. We got back on track here,” Schmidt said afterward.

Gremban and Kowieski matched the low round of the day, shooting 81s. Gremban’s card included five bogeys, two doubles and 11 pars while Kowieski didn’t have a single double on the card, with 10 bogies and a birdie. They ended up in a four-way playoff with Northland Pines’ Sam Shrock and Collin Reynolds. Shrock won the playoff to earn medalist honors while Gremban and Kowieski bowed out early and settled for third and fourth. 

“Just getting the experience and then training to play in the playoffs (was beneficial), so that when they get to that situation, they’ll be, I’ll be better prepared for it,” Schmidt said.

Shefveland was sixth overall with an 86 while Petroff took seventh with an 87. West was three over through three holes when he was disqualified, according to online scoring. A reason was not given.

Up next

Rhinelander will tee it up one final time at Northwood on Thursday in a non-conference invite and will close out the regular season Friday in the Laona/Wabeno Invite at Nicolet Country Club.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].