BRANDON – The Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles put their fingerprints all over the Eastern South Dakota Conference Golf Tournament on Tuesday. The squad, led by medalist Olivia Braun, blitzed the field on the way to winning the team championship by a whopping 22 strokes.

“It was very gratifying in more ways than one. Having the individual ESD champion, Olivia, team championship, just very rewarding,” said Central coach Kim Zimmerman. “I’m very happy for the girls simply because of how happy they were in celebrating. It was kind of a little bit of a burden off their back. You play as well as did all year long, you’re kind of expected to win, obviously. That’s much easier said than done.”

Zimmerman knows that Tuesday’s totals were a bit misleading, beating Mitchell by nearly two dozen strokes.

“They’re going to be ready (for state), so we have to be ready, too,” Zimmerman said. “It was just very uncharacterstic of what their score was like today.”

Zimmerman said all of the team scores across the board were inflated compared to what they were last week on the same course, but said his girls fought through it.

“They really battled,” Zimmerman said. “They were kind of down a little bit after that first nine. They were just kind of sulking a little bit, thinking that they weren’t doing very well, but nobody else was either.”

Zimmerman pointed out the play of Chloe Vikander, who finished 10th and earned all-conference designation.

“She battled through that front nine,” Zimmerman said. “There was some adversity. It wasn’t clear sailing. She hung with it. She stuck it out and just battled to the very end.”

Braun was the medalist with a 70, 10 strokes better than the rest of the field. Emma Dohrer tied for third with an 81, and Kyley Wirebaugh tied for fifth with an 83.

Zimmerman said the scores were higher than normal across the board.

“The greens were very fast down there,” he said. “They were fast for everybody and I think that caused a lot of problems for the majority of the kids.”

Central now has the rest of the week to gear up for next week’s State AA Tournament in Sioux Falls. While there is still work to be done, the Golden Eagles are going to take time to enjoy their conference championship.

“For one thing, we’re going to enjoy this. We’re going to still try to get better and improve, because we can, but at the same time we have to enjoy this a little bit,” Zimmerman said. “That’s what you work so hard for. Even though the state tournament is coming up, by no means are we overlooking that or neglecting that, but we have to enjoy this a little bit.”

Zimmerman said he tries to tell his players to just relax when out on the course and enjoy the game of golf.

“My philosophy is you can’t play golf scared or tentative. … You kind of have to let it go once in a while, and trust club selection and be committed to that shot, and whatever happens happens. But you’ve got to play golf a little freely, too.”

To see complete tournament results, click on the following link:

https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/11571233478280238878