By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Elkhorn Area High School boys golf team got a taste of match play April 30 in the Brighton Dale Invitational at Brighton Dale Links in Kansasville, and acquitted itself well.
The Elks competed at Geneva National Golf Club on consecutive days last week. Elkhorn finished fifth April 26th in the second Southern Lakes Conference Major of the season and 12th April 25th in the Geneva National Invitational.
Elkhorn competed Tuesday at Evergreen Golf Club in the season’s third SLC Major. The Elks compete Friday in the Beloit Invitational at Krueger Haskell Golf Course in Beloit.
“The kids thought it was neat,” Elks coach Steve Fisher said of the match play format at the Brighton Dale Invitational. “They’ve never done anything like that before. The only downer was the weather.”
Match play is a head-to-head scoring format in which players receive a point for winning a hole. The player with the most points wins the hole, and the player with the most holes wins the round. Thirty-two golfers played in 50 nine-hole matches at Brighton Dale.
The Elks finished sixth with five wins. Westosha Central and Union Grove tied for first with nine wins. Central’s Zach Cramer defeated Union Grove’s Eric Chambers in the final match for the individual title.
Steve Fisher said Elkhorn golfers averaged between 22 and 26 holes for the day.
The fifth-place finish the Elks scored at Geneva National in the SLC Major is another high-water mark for the program. Steve Fisher said it’s been several years since Elkhorn finished so high.
Liam Ahler led the Elks with a 93. Kyle Schoeneberg, Nolan Shirk and Nick Keller each finished at 99. Dayne Fisher shot a 113.
Badger’s Connor Duggan won individual medalist honors (78) and led Badger to a first-place team finish (327). Elkhorn tallied a score of 390.
Union Grove finished second (349), Wilmot third (368), Waterford fourth (386) and Westosha Central sixth (39). Burlington finished seventh (414) and Delavan-Darien eighth (439).
“It was a tough course, and colder than Monday,” Fisher said. “We kept it together to finish in fifth.”
The joke among those at the Geneva national Invitational is that this year’s high temperature still beat the high temps of the last two years, if one added those previous highs together.
Elkhorn finished with a team score of 329. Badger finished first (311).
Keller and Schoeneberg led the Elks with 92s. Shirk carded a 97 and Dayne Fisher a 98. Steve Fisher said all five competitors for the Elks broke 100, and said he did not recall the last time such an event occurred.
Burlington’s Justin Meseberg won individual medalist honors (72).
