Forest Hills Schools Rule at Forest Akers
June 8, 2019
By Tom Lang
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Brad Smithson of Ada Forest Hills Eastern said he signed to play golf with Michigan State because it’s close to home and he likes the facilities.
Maybe now he loves the facilities.
Smithson just won the Division 2 Final at the home of MSU – Forest Akers West Golf Course – four strokes ahead of DeWitt senior Charlie DeLong, who is next headed to Grand Valley State.
“Hopefully this is a good start to a summer that rolls into the fall, once I get to State,” Smithson said. “Very special (to win here). This is where I’ll be playing golf, so it’s very cool that I was able to get it done here.”
Smithson and DeLong both shot 71 for the lowest scores in the first round Friday, but Smithson went one stroke better with a 70 (141 total) in the final to DeLong’s 74 (145) on Saturday. Andrew Kolar of team champion Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, and Nick Krueger of Spring Lake, tied for third place at 150. Noah Kolar was one stroke off the lead Friday but closed with 79 for fifth place.
“I got a couple really good breaks I’d say; that kind of kept me in it,” Smithson said of the final round. “A lot of par saves through the back nine and really played pretty solid today, in the wind and pretty tough conditions.
“It was hard work, definitely. It was a grind throughout the day. (Friday) was a lot more rough. A lot more bad breaks. Actually, scored pretty well for how badly I hit it. But today I hit it a lot better, got the breaks I needed and was able to get it done.”
Smithson, playing with DeLong, said he knew he had the lead after the 15th hole by at least two strokes, maybe three.
“So, I hit iron on 16 (tee) and made a good par,” he said. “I tried to keep pushing, stay in my same game plan. I didn’t try to change anything.”
Yet he did close out the day with a long birdie that dropped in the cup on the 18th green when he simply was hoping to lag it close.
DeLong said the back nine was the difference maker.
“We were tied after nine holes, but I struggled off the tee and didn’t really get anything going on the back nine,” he said. “But second in the states isn’t too bad.”
Northern won the team championship despite shooting its worst 18-hole score of the season in the second round. With a 296 on Friday and a comfortable 13-stroke lead over DeWitt heading into Saturday, Northern shot 324 to finish at 620. Eastern shot 309 on Saturday and snuck ahead of the Panthers with a 628 total for runner-up honors, while DeWitt dropped to third place with 309-325-634.
Northern coach Brian Telzerow said the team’s previous worst score this year was an 11-stroke difference.
“This feels a lot sweeter just because last year we were right in the hunt and kind of gave it away at the end,” he said of the 2018 runner-up finish to Flint Powers Catholic. “This year we had a great first round, played really well (Friday), that set us up for today. We kind of expected to play better today, and that didn’t happen.
“Anytime you’re in a round like this, you’ve got to just gut it out. And these guys, I commend them for staying in the game – even after hitting balls out of bounds at times, hitting them in the hazards, and not giving up but just grinding through it. We were fortunate to have yesterday’s lead. That helped us hold onto it today.”
Telzerow said he prefers to have a lead after one round instead of trying to fire up the troops for a come-from-behind effort.
“After yesterday we felt good coming into today and thought we could pull it off,” he said about a team that returned four starters from last year. “Pin placements were a little more difficult … but it’s the state finals, it’s the second day … it’s supposed to be hard.”
PHOTOS: (Top) The top six finishers from this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final, including Forest Hills Eastern’s Brad Smithson (far right). (Middle) Forest Hills Northern’s Andrew Kolar chips onto the green. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Wykons Sweep UPD2 Boys Championships
May 30, 2019
By Adam Niemi
Special for Second Half
IRON RIVER – West Iron County defended its home turf, sweeping the boys and girls MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 Finals on Thursday.
The Wykons' boys carded a team score of 319 at George Young Resort, located 10 miles east of Iron River.
Norway (366) took second place, followed by Hancock (362), St. Ignace (366) and Newberry (388) to round out the top five.
Trey Bociek paced West Iron County with a first-place 74. Norway's Drew Anderson (77) was second, and teammate Jeff VanHolla (78) tied with the Wykons' Nathan Thomson for third.
The team championship was West Iron’s second straight and third in five seasons.
"Obviously No. 1, very pleased," West Iron County head coach Mark Martini said. "No. 2, I think it's overlooked how both teams (boys and girls) started poorly and fought through it like a fourth-quarter football game. They fought right back, and I'm kind of proud of that. That was really good."
West Iron County's girls team won with a 433.
Norway head coach Joby Sullivan said the UP Finals bring out the best in the team aspect of golf.
"I know that some of the boys thought they weren't playing a great round of golf. But holistically, that's what’s great about these individual-dual sports is you may not be doing so well but the overall team, the big picture of it, can come around," Sullivan said. "A couple West Iron kids might have triple-bogeyed a par-3, and then one of their other kids on 15 had a bad hole. That opened the door for us to make a push down the stretch. We didn't capitalize on that, which would've been what we needed to do to make it close.
"It's exciting. When there's something that's happening, it's like the mile relay in a track meet where one team can end up winning it based on the results of that. Down the stretch, it was going to be close for that. It would've been nice to capitalize on that stretch on 13 through 18."
Sullivan said Anderson's 77 was his personal best.
"Drew came in with a 77, which was I think that's his best round ever," Sullivan said. "He was one under all the way through until a double bogey on 16 for his back-nine score. Which was great. Jeff (VanHolla) came in and played well with a 78. He had a couple putts at the end to finish out. He really played some good golf. He and Drew really did a nice job.”
The course was personally designed by the late George Young, a millionaire and passionate golfer whose design for each hole on the Iron County course was derived from the favorite holes he played from different courses around the world.
A wet course from recent rains slowed the greens and made various parts of multiple fairways a mud hazard of sorts. But the sand traps were dry and fooled golfers who landed in bunkers from a wet fairway, causing some to anticipate a heavy sand impact and instead overshoot the green.
If that wasn't enough, the woods hug most fairways. Some tee shots resulted in the echoing sound of a ball bouncing off tree branches, trunks and a heavy sigh from golfers.
The course difficulty and conditions meant Thursday was simply about limiting mistakes.
Austin Salani placed eighth for Hancock with an 85. His brother Colton tied for 12th with a 92. Brimley's Justin Carrick and St. Ignace's Reid Marshall also carded a 92.
PHOTOS: (Top) West Iron County's Nathan Thomson fires an iron shot during Thursday's championship round. (Middle) The Wykons girls and boys championship teams. (Photos by Adam Niemi.)