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WIAA GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIP
This whole girls high school golf thing in the state of Wisconsin is getting downright predictable.
There’s really no better way to describe the finish in October at the WIAA Girls High School Golf Championships at University Ridge GC in Verona, where both the reigning Division 1 and Division 2 team champions waged successful defenses and the Division 2 individual champion brought home her third straight title.
Predictable is the only way to explain the manner in which Madison Edgewood comes to play at state each year. In October, the Crusaders notched their seventh straight team championship – the last five in Division 2, preceded by two titles when the sport was a single division.
This time around, Edgewood defeated runner-up Amery by 61 strokes while shooting the lowest score (634) ever recorded by a girls team in WIAA state championship history. Edgewood opened with an exceptional score of 311 on the first day, then added a 323 in round two. Amery finished second with rounds of 338-357–695, and Osseo-Fairchild was third (377-384–761).
With all that recent success, Edgewood coach Peggy Gierhart said it’s important for her players to take small steps all season long, rather than thinking about winning state, because the pressure to win is palpable at the school and in Madison.
“They can’t think about winning every year,” Gierhart said. “They have to take their small steps. Each goal has to be a small goal so they don’t lose the big picture. I have a really humble team that way.
“There’s a lot of pressure on them, and I’m just impressed with the way they handle that.”
Of course, there’s no substitute for talent, either, and obviously Edgewood had plenty of that over the recently-completed season. Edgewood juniors Alyssa Elliott (77-75–152) and Alex Lake (73-79–152) tied for runner-up honors in Division 2 to finish five shots behind three-time medalist Lindsay Danielson of Osceola, who finished at 147. But it gets better than that for Edgewood, as all five Crusader players finished among the top 12 individual performers, and all five will return next season.
Gierhart admitted the all-time low score at state was something “really exciting to be a part of,” but she deflected praise back on her players. Specifically, she said she was fortunate to coach individuals who loved the game as much as her players do, and they come back to school each fall having played a lot of golf.
“I’m lucky I have five players who play all summer,” she said.
Among those is Elliott, Edgewood’s No. 1 player. Elliott was anything but disappointed to have finished second to Danielson, a good friend who was her roommate and playing partner in July at the Wisconsin-Minnesota Junior Cup Matches.
“I’m so proud of Lindsay,” Elliott said. “She’s like my best friend.”
Danielson got off to a fast start in defense of her titles, shooting a 3-under-par 69 in round one to assume a four-stroke lead over Lake. Round two was complicated by extreme wind and rapidly dropping temperatures throughout the day. Danielson, playing the more open front nine at University Ridge last, struggled with the conditions down the stretch but still shot 78.
“I had five sixes, which wasn’t good,” said Danielson with a smile. “I bogeyed every par-5.”
Danielson will have the chance to make history next year. No Wisconsin high school player, male or female, has ever won four individual high school golf titles in Wisconsin, and Danielson has put herself in position to be the first in 2008. But she didn’t want to talk about that after earning No. 3 this fall.
“I just come to play well,” Danielson said. “And if I win, that’s great.”
In Division 1, Green Bay Notre Dame continued its recent success in high school golf with a second consecutive WIAA Division 1 girls team championship. The Tritons won their first girls Division 1 crown last fall, and between then and now the Notre Dame boys also won the WIAA Division 2 title at University Ridge last spring.
Notre Dame completed the 2007 season with steady rounds of 324-330–654 to finish nine strokes ahead of Onalaska (324-339–663). In third place was Mequon Homestead (338-361–699).
“We’ve got great kids who really work hard,” said Green Bay coach Brian Bobinski. “We’ve got great parents who are wonderful and support our program so well, and our kids just really understand the concept of team golf. They don’t worry about individual things. They worry about the team result, and that allows us to be a great team.”
Notre Dame received strong contributions from up and down its lineup. No. 1 player Maureen Liddy did her part with a third-place individual finish, shooting 74-78–152. Erin Sharpee and Brittany BaDour shot steady rounds and tied for 15th place at 164. And No. 5 player Jacqueline Patz shot a key 86 in round one, followed an equally important score of 88 by No. 4 player Jennifer Konop in round two.
“We were happy we were tied,” Bobinski said of his team’s attitude going into the final round tied with Onalaska. “We figured if we played as well as we were capable of (in the second round), we thought it would be enough. That was the plan.”
The only contest which didn’t go according to form was the race for individual champion on the Division 1 level, in which Nicolet junior Tory Bauman upset defending champion Lindsey Solberg of Middleton by a single shot. Bauman opened with a 78 and was tied for ninth after the first round, one stroke better than Solberg, who will play golf at Michigan State next season.
“It was nerve-racking, but it was really fun,” Bauman said of her final round. “I was out there with Lindsey Solberg, and just to play with a big name, a good player, was awesome. Down the stretch the last couple holes it was really close, and we both knew we were neck-and-neck. I was one shot ahead of her coming into today and I knew I had to stay with her.”
She did so, matching Solberg’s final-round 72 to earn medalist honors by one stroke. An individual qualifier for state, Bauman said it was difficult being there without the support of her teammates. But it didn’t hurt that as an individual qualifier she received an early tee time on day two.
“Today, the wind really picked up,” Bauman said. “I think it was fortunate that I had an early tee time. I teed off at 8:30 and the winds definitely picked up later in the day. It’s got to be difficult for the afternoon players.”
— Rick Pledl
WSGA PATER-FILIUS CHAMPIONSHIP
Gary Menzel had only one expectation going into the Wisconsin State Golf Association’s Pater-Filius Championship: have fun.
It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy playing in most golf tournaments, but there’s something special about the Pater-Filius. It’s a chance for Menzel to get out on the course and play competitive golf with his son, but it’s also an opportunity for a little harassment.
“It’s great to get out there and bond, and we also give each other a hard time and harass each other a bit when we hit bad shots,” Menzel said.
But those bad shots were few and far between during the 2007 version of the tournament, which was held Sept. 13 at Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, after summer storms postponed the first attempt in August. Menzel and his son Brian, who both play out of The Bog in Saukville, knocked off two other father-son teams to win the championship on the first hole of playoff action.
The Menzels, who won the tournament in 1998, agree that the alternate-shot format makes the Pater-Filius a difficult event. “That’s a very hard format, because when you hit a bad shot, your partner has to hit the next one,” said Gary, who won the 2007 WSGA Senior Amateur and consistently ranks among the top senior players in the state.
Gary, 63, and Brian, 35, started off the round with two pars, but recorded bogeys on Nos. 3, 4 and 5. At that point, Gary said, there was no need to panic because there were “a lot of holes left.” They played bogey-free golf from then on, sinking birdie putts on Nos. 11, 14 and 16.
But on the 18th, what Gary calls his favorite hole at Grand Geneva, things headed south. His tee shot went into the trees along the left side, and Brian was left to punch the ball out into the fairway. After poor approach shots, the Menzel men went on to two-putt for double bogey and finish at 2-over 74.
And they weren’t alone.
The father-son teams of Tim and Kyle Murphy of Eau Claire G&CC and Jack and Tim Schaap of Sheboygan T&CC also finished at 74, forcing a sudden-death playoff. But it was the Menzels who would prevail.
After Gary’s tee shot, Brian put his approach on the green, and his father sunk the birdie putt. Tim Murphy missed his chance at a birdie, and the Schaaps were set to make par when Menzel’s birdie putt went in.
And Gary had met his expectation.
“You know, when you’re playing with your son, it’s always fun,” he said.
— Becky LaPlante
WSGA NET PARTNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Jeff Knatz and Craig Zirbel became state champion golfers in September when they won the Wisconsin State Golf Association Net Partners Champ-ionship, but they also share a connection to a different sport.
Come wintertime, when the golf clubs are finally put away for the year, Knatz is the head coach of the Waunakee High School sophomore boys basketball team, and Zirbel is his assistant. They are also both members at the Meadows of Sixmile Creek in Waunakee, although 2007 was the first time they merged forces to compete in the WSGA Net Partners Championship. It won’t be their last.
“I have (played Net Partners events) with other teammates,” Knatz said. “But this is the first time I’ve done it with Craig.”
The Net Partners Championship has become a popular addition to the WSGA’s tournament schedule since it debuted in 1995. This season, there were eight Net Partners qualifying events held around the state between late May and early September, and approximately seven teams from each of them advanced to the Net Partners Championship at The Oaks GC in Cottage Grove on Sept. 14.
The Net Partners format combines the net scores of both players on a team, plus their combined net bestball score to create a 54-hole score.
In some unseasonably cold and windy weather at The Oaks, Knatz, with an adjusted handicap of 5, shot a net 72. Zirbel, with an adjusted handicap of 10, shot a net 74. Their net bestball score came out to 65, for a final score of 211.
But that was only good enough to land Knatz and Zirbel in a three-way playoff. Joe Scrima of Naga-Waukee GC in Pewaukee and Dave Scrima of Kettle Moraine GC in Dousman also shot 211, as did the duo of Roy Bishop and John English of Geneva National GC in Lake Geneva.
“It was freezing, and it was like 30 mph winds, so our only strategy was to try to keep it in front of us and not have a lot of penalty strokes – try not to lose too many golf balls,” Knatz said. “When we came in and we were plus-1, we thought that might be a top-15. So we were pretty surprised that plus-1 got us into a playoff.”
The sudden-death playoff – determined by the teams’ total net strokes – began and ended on the par-3 seventh hole at The Oaks, which played about 150 yards for the tournament. Knatz hit the green with his tee shot. Zirbel landed in a greenside bunker, but he was able to save bogey, which was key to the team’s success.
Because they weren’t getting any handicap strokes on the hole, Knatz and Zirbel recorded a net 7, the same as their gross score, to win the playoff and the 2007 Net Partners Championship title.
Knatz said the win was satisfying because he and Zirbel were able to play well despite the crummy weather.
“I think we played pretty much to our handicaps,” he said. “We played decent considering the conditions. Craig making 4 out of the bunker (on the playoff hole) was pretty key. He made a great bogey from the bunker from where he was.”
— Rick Pledl
WSGA DIRECTOR'S CUP CHAMPIONSHIP
After the first round of the Wisconsin State Golf Assocaiation Director’s Cup Championship was washed out by heavy rain in September, the combatants returned the following morning to The Oaks GC in Cottage Grove hoping for better weather in a one-round shootout for the title.
It didn’t happen.
Sure, it finally did stop raining in time for the second round on Sept. 11, but that only left a long, wet golf course for players to negotiate in pursuit of the Director’s Cup, Wisconsin’s annual mid-amateur tournament for players 25 years and older, which for the second consecutive year was sponsored by adidas. In addition to the wet conditions, the final round was also complicated by some serious wind, which howled in the 25-30 mph range.
The man who survived those conditions best turned out to be 39-year-old Todd Schaap of Johnson Park GC in Racine. Schaap shot a 1-under-par 70 to win the Director’s Cup by two strokes over Paul Clemins of North Shore CC in Mequon. In doing so, Schaap was the only player to finish under par.
“With it being only one round, I figured if you could get it going and get it under par, you had a good opportunity to win,” Schaap said.
Since The Oaks has large, contoured putting surfaces, Schaap said his only real strategy going into the round was to buckle down on his iron shots in the hopes of finding the right portions of the greens.
“I’ve only played the golf course once,” he said. “I knew, because the golf course has six par-3s, you have to be accurate with your irons. The greens are pretty difficult out there – pretty undulated – so the only thing I tried to do was get myself on the right levels, and with as windy as it was, that was more difficult than I thought it would be.”
But Schaap said he putted well, which allowed him to remain under par.
Schaap started on the second hole in the shotgun-start tournament and recorded birdies on Nos. 6, 7 and 15, but he also suffered consecutive bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes.
The 2007 Director’s Cup is the third WSGA tournament he has won. He notched his first Director’s Cup win in 2004, and he won the WSGA State Junior Championship in 1986.
Schaap also played well in many of the state’s most important tournaments in 2007, including top-10 finishes at both the Wisconsin State Amateur Championship and the Ray Fischer Amateur. And he scored well at the Wisconsin State Open in August, but he had to withdraw because of work commitments when the final round was pushed back a day because of more rain.
Following Schaap and Clemins at the Director’s Cup were Tom Halla of Naga-Waukee GC in Pewaukee and Mike Hilton of Rivermoor CC in Waterford, who shot rounds of 73. Tied for fifth at 74 were Robert Retzlaff of the Legend at Brandybrook in Wales and Kevin Cahill of Merrill Hills CC in Waukesha.
— Rick Pledl
WSGA TWO-MAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Bob Pyle and Todd Westrich have been competitors on the golf course for many years, but this year they decided it was time to find an event in which they could play together.
So without preparation and without ever having played Morningstar GC in Waukesha, the two set out to compete as a team in the Wisconsin State Golf Association Two-Man Team Championship, the WSGA’s season-ending tournament – and they won.
“(Todd’s) a great player, so I had a feeling our games would complement each other real well,” Pyle, 47, said. “As it turned out, they did.”
Pyle, a member of Oneida G&CC in Green Bay, and Westrich, a member of Northbrook CC in Luxemburg, combined to win by two strokes over Jon Oaks and Jeff Ausen in the tournament that packs bestball, alternate-shot and individual stroke-play rounds into a tough two-day schedule.
Pyle and Westrich started with a 68 in the bestball round, one stroke behind four other groups who were tied for first. But it was their play in the difficult alternate-shot round that boosted them into the lead.
“Alternate shot is tough. One bad shot can hurt you quite a bit,” Pyle, said. “Typically ... you try not to put your partner in a bad spot. You feel bad when you make a mistake, and so it adds another level of pressure.”
During that round, the pair carded a 69, two strokes better than the 71 recorded by Jim Ignatowski and Brent Wong of Whitnall Park GC in Hales Corners, who finished in a tie for seventh. Pyle and Westrich did so by making five birdies and an eagle and shooting 30 on the back nine. Oaks and Ausen recorded a 75 during alternate-shot.
“That was a pretty special nine holes of golf,” Pyle said. “There were so many good shots hit and good putts made.”
When the alternate-shot round was complete, competitors kept playing and moved directly on to the third portion of the tournament, the individual stroke-play rounds. During that portion both players’ gross scores were added with their team scores from the first two rounds, effectively giving the team a 72-hole final score. So as Pyle and Westrich headed into the final round, they had no idea they had a four-stroke lead over Oaks and Ausen until they were able to track down a rules official.
Pyle and Westrich combined to shoot 147 during the stroke-play round. Westrich finished at 3-over 75, but Pyle’s even-par 72 kept them on track and helped give them a two-stroke win at 4-under 284. Oaks, who plays out of the Legend at Brandybrook in Wales, and Ausen, a member at Merrill Hills CC in Waukesha, combined for a 144 during the stroke-play rounds, giving them a final score of 288. In third place at 290 were Alan Thompson and Craig Haltom of Old Hickory GC in Beaver Dam.
Pyle said this was the first time either he or Westrich has played in the Two-Man Team Championship, and the format made it a great event. In a state where a majority of tournaments are held in the Milwaukee and Madison areas, he said it felt great to represent the guys from up north.
“Some of the players from the northern part of the state don’t get the opportunity to compete in all the state events, and I think it was nice for us to be successful,” Pyle said. “It was kind of neat to see us be victorious over so many good players. To be able to win in a field like that makes you feel pretty good.”
— Becky LaPlante
WSGA STATE NET AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
The Wisconsin State Golf Association debuted its inaugural State Net Amateur Championship at the end of August, and with all the computations involving handicaps and raw scores being done as players walked off the golf course, it’s a safe assumption that no one in the field had any clue about who was in the lead.
In fact, when all the scores had finally been calculated, one of the co-leaders, Sandy Swiecichowski, had to be summoned from the clubhouse where she was already enjoying a cold beverage. At that point, Swiecichowski didn’t realize she had performed well enough during the one-round tournament to advance to a playoff.
Then, she won the darn thing.
“It was amazing because it was the lowest score I shot all season,” she said of her victory. “I was just out there playing, and I had no idea I was going to win.”
Swiecichowski, 32, shot a gross score of 91 during the one-round event, held on the Pines Course at Lake Arrowhead GC in Nekoosa on Aug. 28. Swiecichowski’s handicap – which, like all players in the field, was adjusted for the tournament according to the course’s slope rating – was 23. That resulted in a net score of 68, good enough for Swiecichowski to tie at the top of the leaderboard with Roy Bishop of Geneva National GC in Lake Geneva.
Bishop, with an adjusted handicap of 12, shot a gross score of 80 at Lake Arrowhead and also recorded a net 68.
Both players scored 7 on the playoff hole – the par-5 ninth on the Pines Course – but because Swiecichowski received two handicap strokes on the hole compared to just one for Bishop, Swiecichowski took home the title.
“I’d never done anything like that before, so I was pretty nervous,” Swiecichowski said when asked about her first sudden- death playoff experience. “But I usually play a pretty straight ball. I’m not long, but I play pretty straight, and I was able to do that in the playoff.”
As playoffs go, this was a rather unusual one. Swiecichowski and Bishop not only received a different number of strokes on the playoff hole, they also played off different tees, as the tournament rules required men to play from the middle tees and women to play from the forward tees.
Swiecichowski admitted that she was nervous at the start of the playoff, and the gender difference between she and Bishop was likely a contributing factor.
Swiecichowski, who plays out of Royal St. Patrick’s GL in Wrightstown and also lives on the golf course there, said she is in the process of getting back into golf. She played during her high school years, then gave up the game for a period of time. Now, she’s getting more serious about it again, and not long ago she took her first-ever golf lesson with Royal St. Patrick’s golf pro Nick Stephens.
“I took a lesson from him about three weeks before the tournament, and I’d never taken a lesson from anyone before,” she said. “Ever since then I’ve been hitting my irons great.”
Tied for third, with net scores of 69, at the inaugural WSGA State Net Amateur Championship were Kathy Algiers of Chaska GC in Appleton, Greg Beltran of Mascoutin CC in Berlin and Guy Schetter of Ives Grove GL in Sturtevant.
Alone in sixth place with a net score of 70 was Bill Komarek of Yahara Hills GC in Madison.
For the record, Swiecichowski was one of 14 Wisconsin women in the 81-player field. The overall response from WSGA players was so strong in the inaugural year that the Net Amateur will likely be expanded for the 2008 season to a 36-hole tournament contested over two days.
— Rick Pledl
STATE SENIOR OPEN
Clark Eichstedt isn’t your typical professional golfer.
He didn’t come up through the ranks of high school and college golf. He didn’t make a big announcement when he turned pro, and he hasn’t spent his summers playing in Wisconsin PGA events. Eichstedt, a 54-year-old resident of Kewaskum, began his professional career over 10 years ago in California before entering a local qualifying tournament for the U.S. Open.
“I simply entered as a professional, and ever since, if I’ve ever won anything, I collected the cash,” Eichstedt said.
And that’s exactly what he did – $1,000 to be exact – on Sept. 5 at Merrill Hills CC in Waukesha when he won the Wisconsin State Senior Open. Eichstedt held on to his first-day lead and beat out amateur Tim Murphy of Eau Claire by two strokes.
“It’s the biggest event that I’ve ever won in the state of Wisconsin,” Eichstedt said. “At my age, you just try to compete and do what you can.”
After firing a 69 in round one, Eichstedt held a three-stroke lead over Murphy and Hartland’s Randy Warobick. But during the second round, Warobick fell out of contention early and left Eichstedt and Murphy to fight it out. Murphy made a late run on Eichstedt, but it wasn’t enough to threaten his lead. Eichstedt closed with a 1-over 73, for a 142 total.
“I didn’t really try to shoot any kind of career-low round on day two,” Eichstedt said. “I just kept my nose in front.”
It was on No. 16 that Murphy began to make his run on Eichstedt. Murphy, who shot even-par 72 in the first round, birdied the hole, pulling to within two strokes. But Eichstedt hit his tee shot on No. 17 into the right-side trees, and he was forced to pitch out onto the fairway. He made bogey on the hole, and Murphy’s par pulled him to within one.
On the 192-yard par-3 18th, Murphy’s tee shot landed on the green, but he had a tough putt and wound up three-putting. Eichstedt made par for the two-stroke win. Murphy ended up with another even-par round and finished at 144.
Prior to the tournament, Eichstedt, a third-shift corrections officer at the Washington County Jail, played a practice round with Merrill Hills member Jeff Ausen, who finished in a tie for sixth. Eichstedt said Ausen pointed out a lot of things specific to the course, so he felt prepared for the tournament. And because he’d finished in a tie for fifth at the 2006 Senior Open, Eichstedt knew winning was a possibility.
“I didn’t feel like I needed to do anything special, just make sure I didn’t do anything stupid,” Eichstedt said.
Because of his work schedule, and because of the fact that he’s an unaffiliated professional, Eichstedt doesn’t get many opportunities to play competitive golf. During the 2007 season he tried to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open, and he played in the Wisconsin State Open, where he missed the cut, and the Senior Open.
On day one of the Senior Open, Eichstedt, a member at Kewaskum’s Hon-E-Kor G&CC, was paired with former Wisconsin State Golf Association executive director Gene Haas.
“He was such a gentleman and so positive. It was such a treat to play with him because he’s been a leader and good representative for Wisconsin golf over the years,” Eichstedt said. “Some people you seem to have an easier time getting a good number with than others, and he was one. He certainly was a lot of fun.”
But the biggest honor Eichstedt took away was his exemption into the 2008 Wisconsin State Open.
“And the State Open next year is at the same place where the State Senior Open was last year, where I finished fifth, at Eau Claire G&CC,” he said. “That’s kind of neat. I can go up there with all kinds of good vibes.”
– Becky LaPlante
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