Life is crowded at the top of the individual leaderboard after one day of competition during the Class AA State Golf Tournament at Lee Park Golf Course on Monday.
A total of seven golfers are all within one shot of each other after 18 holes. A trio of golfers shot one-under-par 70s, while another four are just one stroke back at even par.
Sioux Falls Lincoln owns a four-stroke lead in the team standings with Harrisburg, Brandon Valley, and O’Gorman all tied for second.
Harrisburg’s Jalen Dwire, who led for much of the opening round, is among the three golfers tied atop the leaders.
“I was scrambling like crazy today,” Dwire said. “If I hit a bad shot that got in the trees, instead of doing anything too crazy, I would just get out, and try and go up and down, and most of the time it worked.”
Dwire knew he was piecing together a solid round and just tried to stay within himself.
“I just try to play my game,” Dwire said. “I had a good round going for myself, so I figured I was competing well, and I just wanted to stick to my own game.”
Dwire tries to keep a positive mindset while out on the course, even when things start going in the wrong direction.
“Mental is huge. It’s something I struggled with when I was younger,” Dwire said, “so I’ve been working on it. I notice that the happier I am, the putts start rolling in without even noticing.”
While Dwire is in the hunt for an individual state title, he said his main goal is helping the Tigers repeat as state team champs.
“I play for the team. It’s all for the team,” Dwire said. “I hardly even think about myself. I mean, what’s a solo win when a team can win, right?”
Drew Simon of O’Gorman and Asher Dannenbring also shot rounds of 70 and are tied for the lead. The group one shot off the pace includes Tyler Blom and Quinton Hollan of Lincoln, Lincoln McInerney of Brandon Valley, and Max Stemwedel of Watertown.
Hollan described his round on the day.
“A lot of ups and downs today. I had a double on my card, which isn’t ideal, but I made 3 or 4 (birdie putts). I just kind of battled today,” Hollan said. “Our team motto is PAR, which stands for Patience-Acceptance-Resilience, and I feel like I did that really well today, just kind of kept battling.”
Hollan said he tries to control what he can on the course and then let the other stuff go.
“In golf, obviously there’s a lot of factors that you can’t control, so I think it’s really good to set goals that aren’t result-based,” Hollan said. “So today my goal was just to try to execute every shot to the best of my ability, and let go of the result, which I did really well.”
Hollan said that while he may keep track of his own score throughout a round he never looks at the leaderboard, “because I feel that just pulls me away from being process-oriented and kind of pulls me toward being result-oriented.”
The senior will attempt to do his best to help the Patriots win the team title today, knowing it will take a collective effort to accomplish that task.
“Our goal is to win. It’s been a process realizing that it’s bigger than just you, because out here in golf you’re usually playing by yourself, but when you’re playing high school it’s more than just you,” Hollan. “You’re a team, so you have to try to pick the other players up when they might be feeling down, trying to accept your players’ positivity when you’re down.”
Aberdeen Central was led by Cole Brust and Ben Golz, who both shot rounds of 81.
Golz, playing in his first state tournament as a sophomore, was among the leaders in the early stages on Monday.
“He came out and made a couple birdies right away and got comfortable,” said Central coach Matt Brust.
However, a few late holes added to his total.
“It could have been been better, (holes) 13, 14 and 15, definitely need to play those better, but four birdies, 38, which would have been the back for me, for the front,” Golz said. “I just can’t make double on the last. Solid round, but just got to eliminate the doubles.”
Golz said the key for today’s final round is to stay away from big numbers.
“No doubles, that’s it; keep playing my game,” Golz said, “just got to hit more greens and be more confident over my ball.”
The Golden Eagles are enjoying not having to travel to head to a state tournament.
“It’s always good to sleep in your own bed,” Coach Brust said. “Come out (Tuesday), give it your best, and see where we get.”
The state tourney is unique in that there are spectators all over the course and every stroke is magnified.
While the stage is bigger than normal, it’s nothing new for Harrisburg’s Gavin Weir, who was a standout pitcher for Sioux Falls in the 2021 Little League World Series.
“Playing in that was definitely pretty big. There’s a lot of stress and stuff that comes with this, so that helps a lot with this,” Weir said. “Honestly, playing with a bunch of fun guys helps with it, too. You can get very uptight and stressed, but playing with them honestly made me have so much fun. I think going along with Little League, that helped as well being on that big stage coming here.”
Weir would like to help Dwire and the rest of the team claim another state championship when action resumes today.
“He’s golfing well,” Weir said. “We have to back him up and I think (Tuesday) we’re going to have the tools to do that.”
To see complete first round results, click on the following link:
