Watertown continued to rule the Hub City Invitational golf tournament at Lee Park Golf Course on Tuesday.
For the second straight year the Arrows won the team title and had a golfer earn medalist honors. Sophomore Kaden Rylance topped the field with a 71. His teammate and last year’s champion Jake Olson shot a 74 and finished fourth.
When asked about the key to his round, Rylance responded, “Just hitting a lot of fairways. That was a big deal. … When I missed greens is when I had a big numbers, so hitting greens was a big deal, too.”
Aberdeen’s Central Rylan Dykema shot a 74 and finished in third place. That was his best round ever at Lee Park.
“I was pretty happy with that,” Dykema said.
The senior said putting played a important role in his round.
“I was making a lot of putts,” Dykema said. That included about a 28-foot attempt.
Dykema said a big factor in putting is to “take your time and get your line right.”
He said it helps to be able to string a few putts together.
“You’re confident with your putter after you make a few,” Dykema said.
Dykema’s round helped the Golden Eagles to a third place finish in team points. Teammate Cole Brust finished 12th with an 80.
“There was a couple of good scores. Rylan played as well as he’s played this season. Cole is still consistent,” said Central coach Matt Brust. “The higher scores that are being used for team need to get under that 88-89 mark in order to get a little more competitive.”
Still, the Eagles were able to accomplish a pre-meet goal for their team total.
“I asked the boys (Monday) what they would consider a successful day today and they said 329 or better as a team score. We shot 329,” Coach Brust said. “They were at the higher end of it, but you have to start somewhere and work towards it.”
Roncalli finished fourth as a team. The Cavaliers had a tightly bunched group led by Finn Anderson who shot an 82 and finished 14th. Andrew Gerlach was right behind with an 83.
“It was great to see Andrew Gerlach play well again today. Finn had some good stuff out there, but still a couple of mental errors,” said Roncalli coach Jon Murdy. ” The biggest thing for us is, we’re still trying to find our one through five and I’ve got seven kids that can do it.”
Anderson was a bit disappointed in his score.
“I wasn’t hitting my driver great, but I got up and down a few times,” Anderson said. “The chips were pretty nice. I only had 27 putts, but I still shot an 82. It wasn’t the best day.”
Despite being just an eighth-grader, Anderson feels like he should be a team leader.
“Last year I shot 77, so you kind of want to do better than that,” Anderson said of last year’s Hub City tourney. “I have to step up. I’m the ‘one man’, so I have to shoot better than that. I can’t shoot 82.”
Murdy said the Cavaliers as a team left a lot of strokes out on the course, but that the errors are correctible.
“The mental errors that we make on a golf course that we can control – our attitude, our effort, that we can control – is what’s costing us multiple shots in a round,” Murdy said. “It’s trying to get them over that hump to realize you can hit a bad shot, you can make a bogey, you can go on to the next hole. It’s taking that bad shot, taking it to the next shot, taking it to the next shot, and the next shot, and then you end up with a triple. That’s hard to come back from.”
Murdy said the goal for the Cavaliers is to keep improving so they can be playing their best come post season.
“I’m happy with the team score,” Murdy said of Tuesday’s result. “I know that we can improve on it and I’m just looking forward to trying to improve on it.”
To see complete tourney results, click on the following link:
