Girl golfers squeeze in handful of matches as sun begins to shine

Golf has been the spring sport most brutalized by this poor weather lately. Even when the rain and snow stopped, the course needed time to dry out, leaving the teams confined to the gym for longer than the other sports.

But, the girls golf teams found their way outside on Monday, April 29 with an 18-hole conference meet at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids. On the original schedule, this competiton was labeled as a “Midseason North Suburban Conference Meet”. For the North Branch Vikings, it looked every bit like an early-season meet, though, instead of a midseason one. They shot a 476, nearly 100 strokes behind Benilde-St. Margaret’s, who won the event with a 377. Sophomore Janice Elkerton carded the low score for NB with a 110.

Other girls who’s score counted for the Vikings were Emily Lawrence, Emily Carlson and Hannah Gomes. Spring Lake Park finished in second behind BSM with a score of 387, and St. Francis was in third with a 393. Those three schools were the only ones under 400 on the day. “We just didn't do anything very well on Monday. We struggled on the greens, off the tees and out of the sand. This was our first time on a golf course all year, and it would be nice to blame it on that,” Head Coach Dave Ambers said. “But, most of the other teams were in the same situation as we are. Bunker is a long, tough golf course and when you make as many mistakes as we did, your scores can balloon.
“These girls have a lot more ability than we showed in this first outing. We started slow last season, too. Once we get some outside practice time and get to work on some of the things we had trouble with at Bunker, I'm confident we'll show some significant improvement.”

The Vikings were able to show off some of that improvement right away when they took to Columbia Golf Couse in Minneapolis. The biggest improvement came off the clubs of junior Sarah Harris, who carded a 54 on the day. “Sarah’s been struggling with her swing this year,” Ambers explained. “Hopefully, this nice round will help her regain some confidence.” Carlson led the team with a 53, and she only had two bad holes on the day. “If she can play consistently for all nine, she’ll see some mid 40s on her card,” Ambers said.

The Vikings tied with Chisago Lakes for last with 222 strokes. Spring Lake Park won the meet with a 175. BSM finished in second with a 188.

Chisago Lakes
The Wildcats also had a tough time keeping up in their first meet of the year. They carded a 467, only besting North Branch. Sophomore Katelyn Sargeant carded a 103 to pace the Wildcats on the day.

Senior Maddie Howard, who played in her first meet back after not coming out for golf her junior year, scored a 113 after shooting a 55 on the front nine at Bunker Hills and a 58 on the back nine. Barbara Murray, Hailey Bodell and Alyssa Marthaler all finished right next to each other, with scores of 125, 126 and 127, respectively.

Wildcat Head Coach Perry Aadland though looked at the silver lining, noting that because of the cancellations and postponements, the only meet that will count towards the conference championship and All-Conference and Honorable Mention awards is the final meet on May 20, so these early conference meets are “virtually practice rounds,” according to Aadland.

At Columbia, Howard led the team with a season-best 50, rounding back into the form she had as a sophomore. Sargeant was second on the team with a 52 and Hailey Bodell carded a 57.

The Wildcats did fit in a meet early this week at the Forest Hill Country Club in Forest Lake. The 20-team invite featured many section teams and the Wildcats got an up-close glimpse of what they are shooting for. They carded a team score of 446, which put them in 15th place in the meet. Blaine won the event with a 341, putting them 16 strokes ahead of second place Woodbury.