Hodag golfers take fifth in GNC finale

The Rhinelander High School boys’ golf team locked up third place in the final Great Northern Conference standings Monday as it took fifth in the conference finale at Indianhead Golf Course in Mosinee.

Rhinelander shot 351, finishing two strokes behind Tomahawk and Merrill, who tied for third, but the Hodags had enough of a buffer between the two teams to maintain third in the final standings. 

The Hodags had two golfers finish in the top 15 in the final individual conference standings and earn all-conference honors. 

Chase West and Grant Gremban both earned second-team honors by placing seventh and eighth, respectively, in the standings over the course of the eight-round tournament. Points were earned by placing in the top 10 at each individual conference match. 

West did not play on Monday and Gremban had a chance to overtake West in the standings, but made a double bogey on his next-to-last hole, the par-3 16th and followed with a quadruple bogey on the par-5 17th to shoot 87 and finish 11th, one stroke outside the top 10. West and Gremban both made the all-conference team for the first time.

“Grant actually was playing pretty good, and he took a 9 on his last hole. So that was a killer, but Grant still managed to be second-team conference. Chase was a second-team all-conference so that was good,” coach Adam Schmidt noted. “Grant putted really well. I got some videos of Grant making some really key putts for par. I mean, 87 doesn’t look like a great round, but minus the nine on the last hole, he was cooking.”

Junior Drake Nelson filled in for West on Monday and had a strong GNC debut, shooting 84 to take ninth place on the day and become Rhinelander’s fifth different golfer to earn conference points on the season. Starting on the 12th hole, Nelson was 9-over through his first seven holes, but found life after the turn, playing Indianhead’s front nine in 40 strokes. He finished his round with a par on the 10th and a birdie on the par-5 11th hole.

“He kind of had a rough start on the back nine and then he got it rolling for the front,” Schmidt said. “He was just on a roll. He was hitting greens — hit six greens, eight fairways and only had one penalty stroke. He really did a good job keeping the ball in play.”

Neither Blake Petroff nor Hank Kowieski were able to play their way into all-conference contention on Monday. Both needed points and some help to make the top 15 in the final standings. Petroff was never able to get his round going, starting with three consecutive sixes as he was 8-over through five holes. He shot 91 and tied for 21st on the day. It was a similar story for Kowieski, who made back-to-back sevens on the 16th and 17th — his second and third holes of the day. He wound up with a 93 that included no birdies and five holes of double or worse. 

Dylan Shefveland shot 89, taking 15th on the day. 

Lakeland and Mosinee entered the day in a heads-up battle for the conference title. Lakeland claimed its eighth straight GNC title by shooting 330 and beating Mosinee by six strokes. Northland Pines’ Sam Shrock shot 77 on Monday to take third on the day and clinch GNC player of the year honors by 4 1/2 points over Lakeland’s Davis Kock, who won Monday’s meet with an even-par round of 72. 

Regionals ahead

The Hodags played one final match at home Thursday that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Rhinelander was originally scheduled to travel to Laona today for a non-conference invite, but Schmidt said the team has backed out of that event. 

Overall, as the Hodags prepare for regionals this coming Tuesday in Wausau, Schmidt said a long season has taken a toll on his squad. 

“It’s just too much golf. We’ve been playing 3-4 matches a week and we need to back off a little bit,” he said. “It’s just a lot of golf, and we really didn’t have the extra time to practice. It kind of hurts, especially when, you get into a little bit of a slump and, you just can’t get out because playing more and more golf.”

The Hodags are part of a nine-team regional that includes all six Wisconsin Valley Conference schools, plus Lakeland and Merrill from the GNC. Schmidt said the team traveled to the tournament venue, Greenwood Hills Country Club, on Wednesday for a practice round in preparation for Tuesday’s regional.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].