Newton boys golf finishes eighth in 3A state tournament

AMES — The Class 3A boys state golf tournament had plenty of ups and even lots of downs for the Newton boys.

Veenker Memorial Golf Course provides several challenges and rain throughout the final 18 holes made it even more difficult.

Sometimes keeping the ball straight in the fairways was the biggest obstacle and that led to an eighth-place finish for the Cardinals on Tuesday.

“They wanted to get into the top five but unfortunately things went a little south on us,” Newton boys golf coach Pat Riley said. “They put themselves in position (Monday) to do something special and the pressure got to them. I think they didn’t want to let each other down. You have to flush the bad holes and move on.”

The Cardinals were in sixth place after Monday’s opening round of 349. Newton shot 354 on Tuesday and fell to eighth in the 10-team field.

Gilbert claimed the team championship with a two-day score of 633.

Solon trailed Gilbert by 12 strokes after the first round and fell even further back on the second day. The Spartans still finished second with a 654.

The rest of the top five included ADM (665), Pella (673) and Knoxville (687). The Tigers were 19 shots better the second day and the Dutch improved by 21 strokes.

Newton finished ahead of Webster City (712) and Washington (741) in the final standings, but MOC-Floyd Valley (687) had a 33-shot improvement from Round 1 to Round 2 to climb over Newton. The other school in the field was Spencer (696).

“There were a lot of doubters in our conference who didn’t think we’d make it,” Riley said. “We didn’t have expectations because we weren’t supposed to be there anyway and most people didn’t think we were good enough.

“The pins were in a tough place yesterday. They didn’t play bad I don’t think. I do think they felt a little bit of pressure today.”

Ethan Walker, Lincoln Ergenbright, Braydon Chance and Kinnick Pritchard were the top shooters for Newton both days.

Walker was 12th after the opening round following an 80, but he carded an 86 on the second day and finished 18th overall.

“It was bad. I just didn’t it well and didn’t hit it straight,” Walker said. “If you don’t hit it well on this course, it’s going to be a long day.”

Ergenbright led the Cardinals with three birdies. Walker and Chance each had two birdies.

Walker was six strokes worse on the second day, but Ergenbright improved by 10 shots. His 81 on the final round pushed him into a tie for 26th with an overall score of 172.

“I played pretty well today. I struggled on my last few holes but found a way to keep it together,” Ergenbright said. “I was pleased that I came to play the second day. I struggled the first day. I was glad to stay mentally in it and post a decent score today.”

There were plenty of positives from the two-day tournament. One of Ergenbright’s three birdies came after he chipped in from just off the green on the par 4 No. 14.

Chance had two birdies and shot a near personal-best score of 86 on the first 18 holes. He also saved par on Day 2 on the par 3 No. 13  when he hit a perfect bunker shot within a few feet of the hole and then sunk the par putt one shot later.

“I had a really good first round. I missed a three-foot putt that would have tied my best score ever. It really helped that I chipped in for birdie twice,” Chance said. “Today I didn’t start off very well. I tried to clear the bad shots out of my head. Putting was more difficult today because some of the greens were wetter than others.”

Chance tied for 41st overall and Pritchard was tied for 44th.

Pritchard had consistent 92-91 splits for his two rounds. He opened day two with a 50 for the first nine holes but improved that number to 41 on the back nine.

Chance said Veenker plays a lot like Bos Landen in Pella. The fairways are tight and there are a lot of hazards.

“It’s super tight everywhere. Most courses have fairways on top of each other and you can spray it around a little bit,” Chance said. “Here, if you spray it left or right, it goes into a hazard.

“The way the course played was difficult and the scores showed that.”

Pritchard finished with a 183 as the Cardinals’ final scorer. Brennan Amos (210) and Conner Brain (225) were the non-counting scorers. Amos was six shots better on the second day than he was on the first.

Typically, Veenker’s challenging tight fairways led to high scores across the board.

That wasn’t the case for Waverly Shell-Rock’s Hogan Hansen. The future Iowa Hawkeye had nine birdies in his two rounds and won the individual title with a 139. He went 69-70 for his two rounds.

Pella’s Will Simpson was the runner-up medalist with 76-73 splits.

“I had no expectations coming in,” said Chance, who is the Cardinals’ No. 5 golfer but had the third-best score over the two rounds. “I shot a 180 million trillion on my practice round. I came out here with no expectations for myself. We made it here so I may as well have fun. It was a great experience, and I’m glad we made it and we could all experience it.”

Ergenbright said his issue on Day 1 was hitting the ball off the tee. He just wasn’t accurate enough.

“It’s really long and narrow. You have to be accurate off the tee which is something I wasn’t the first day,” Ergenbright said. “I hit the ball better today, and it was a really great experience to play in the state tournament. That was the goal since day one. It was fun to be a part of our first state team in 20 years.”

While Walker was six shots better over the course of the first 18 holes, he felt like his two rounds were similar with the exception of one thing.

“Today I had holes where I lost it mentally on and you can’t do that. I made some triples and a quad,” Walker said. “The course played really tough. The greens played tough. We played a Division I golf course pretty much.

Newton’s varsity roster features six seniors and Pritchard, who is a sophomore. He’ll likely take over as the team’s No.1 golfer next spring, a position Riley hopes he picks up and runs with.

“I’m proud of what the seniors have accomplished and worked hard to get. KP is coming around a lot, too,” Riley said. “He has the perfect golf demeanor. You can’t tell if he’s playing good or bad. He works hard in the winter. He won’t take time off and he impressed me this year. He’ll be in the lead role next year.”