2023-10-03 02:19:29
GRAND FORKS — As if the dynamic between Grand Forks Red River and Fargo Davies in the East Region wasn’t enough, throwing in another quality group of golfers from Mandan from the West Region makes for highly competitive golf at the top of the North Dakota Class A state girls golf tournament.
Mandan’s Anna Huettl shot a 71 to lead the individual leaderboard and power the Braves to a team-leading 310 after Day 1 on Monday at the state meet at the Grand Forks Country Club.
The meet concludes Tuesday.
The 310 is two-up on Red River’s 312 and 13 up on Davies. The Eagles actually sit two back of West Fargo Sheyenne after the first 18 holes.
“We knew we were all really capable of coming in and playing really well today and at this tournament,” Huettl said. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work during the season and the offseason. We knew we were fully capable of shooting lower scores and we did that.”
Huettl and Mandan’s day, along with Red River and Davies, started off on the wrong foot when the wind started to pick up at 11:30 am. A double bogey on two and a bogey on three acted as a stumble out of the starting gates but she rectified it quickly. Birdies on four and six brought her back down to even par and set up a special back nine.
At the Grand Forks Country Club, depending on pin placement, the greens can be punishing if putts are not set up correctly. One miscue of pace can send a ball off the green and make for tricky rescues. Huettl had no problems on the back nine as she went bogey-free with three birdies to get her one-under par for the round.
“Having good course management and knowing where to land it, where not to land it is really important. I think that was a huge part for me today. I know I didn’t want to go over the greens because it was almost impossible coming back,” she said.
The other Brave golfer to capture success on the greens was eighth-grader Isabella Hale. She knocked down birdie putts on par three holes Nos. 5 and 12 and was even able to attack the longer holes on the course by birdieing the 428-yard par five.
Her 77 has her sitting fourth in the tournament and it is the first time she has broken 80, a goal she set out for herself this year.
“I feel good about it. I’m pretty proud of myself. I didn’t like the wind, but I liked how I was able to play through it and more importantly how my team did,” Hale said.
Had it not been for a birdie by Huettl and a bogey for Red River’s Ella Speidel on the 18th, the Roughriders would have ended the day tied for the lead. Still, they were able to showcase their depth with each of their top four scorers finishing inside the Top 10.
Speidel and Sophie Brakke were the Red River leaders for the majority of the day. Brakke used some finesse early on with birdies on five and eight where she was able to pin tee shots to within 5 feet. On the back nine, she was able to keep her bogeys just bogeys, but four of them dropped her from +1 to +5.
Red River’s Jaya Grube and coach Eric Sanders talk it over during the first day of the ND Girls Class A tournament at the Grand Forks Country Club.
Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
Speidel was able to work through a 40 on the front nine by coming up with a clutch putt off the green on 12 for birdie and a chance at eagle on 17 that just lipped out.
“We maybe didn’t play our best today, but we had good shots and we also had bad shots. Tomorrow we should have the confidence and the mindset we’ve had all year. I’m excited for what we can do,” Red River’s Jaya Grube said.
Grube, the regular-season leader for the Roughriders, put together matching 39s on each side of her scorecard. Her 78 would be barely two strokes off her season average of 76, but after setting a personal record last week with a 69 at this very course, her own expectations were high.
“It puts a different spin on things after you come off a personal best. It is a balance to be realistic but also having heightened expectations. You can only control so much. This being home is really comforting but there is also some extra pressure,” Grube said.
Grube, like Speidel, had an eagle chance on 17, but two-putted for par before picking up her first eagle of the day on 18.
Rose Solberg of Fargo Davies blasts out of a sandtrap on #3 at the Grand Forks Country Club on day one of the state girls tournament Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.
Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
A 321 team score and a 76 from Zoe Keene has West Fargo Sheyenne ahead of Davies after one day.For much of the regular season in the East Region, the Mustangs have played third wheel to Red River and Davies, so with one day in the hunt and the thought that anything can happen on Day 2, Sheyenne believes in the talent on the roster that has been fighting for the opportunity to swoop in when given the chance. “We shot our team record, I think, seven times this year. We haven’t plateaued, we keep trending lower (with our scores). We’ve put the work in, we know the course and we feel confident. No one is worried about what Sheyenne is going to shoot so we can really play loose and just go out and do our best,” Sheyenne coach Dan Wolf said.Zoe Keene’s sister Ava qualified for the state tournament last week during the EDC tournament but did so after carding a nine on the last hole. An emotional moment for the freshman, through words of encouragement she was able to come right back to the same course and birdie the first hole. “It was really nice. I want our team to do good and it means a lot to have a lot of people here to support me, like my family,” she said. … “Sometimes you hit great shots and you are punished,” Wolf said. “We talked about keeping an even keel and showing some resilience and grit.”
Digital Content Producer and Sports Reporter at the Grand Forks Herald since December of 2020. Maxwell can be contacted at [email protected].
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