'Unexpected' Medalist Keys D1 Champ
May 29, 2013
By Brandon Veale
Special to Second Half
HOUGHTON – After the Upper Peninsula's infamous spring of 2013, the golfers at Wednesday's U.P. Division 1 Final should have known to expect the unexpected at Portage Lake Golf Course.
Sun-splashed, windless conditions prime for scoring and a medalist who played in his team's No. 3 slot and hadn't broken 80 all season certainly qualified as unexpected.
The man of the hour was Marquette sophomore Scott Frazier, who fired a 1-under-par 71 to earn the medalist honor and lead his team to the overall trophy.
“I'm gonna remember this for a while,” Frazier said after what he described as the best round of his career.
Marquette posted a team total of 308, 15 strokes better than defending champion Houghton, while playing on Houghton’s home course. It is Marquette's first MHSAA title in five years and sixth since competition in nearly-equal divisions began in 2001.
Three over after four holes, Frazier, who started on No. 4, still felt like he had a good round going just a few holes in.
“My putting was unbelievable. I was one-putting everything, and my drives were straight, too,” Frazier said.
He stabilized his round with a big birdie on the par-four ninth hole, then grinded out seven pars and just one bogey over the next eight.
He missed the fairway right on the long, uphill par-5 18th and had his second swing partially obstructed by a tree. All it did was set up a stretch of golf to remember.
“I took out a 3-wood, I took a three-quarters swing, I put it right under a tree branch and I knocked it on (the green) about 20 feet away,” Frazier said.
He rolled in a straight putt for his eagle 3, then wrapped around to birdie both Nos. 1 and 2.
Marquette dropped Frazier's score, a 92, in the Great Northern Conference tournament at Escanaba Country Club last Thursday. But he brought his best game when everything was on the line.
“He's a competitor and a fiery kid,” Marquette coach Ben Smith said. “Part of that turns into frustration sometimes, but he managed it and had a great day.”
Calumet's Reese Lassila, playing with the No. 1's several holes ahead, had no way to know Frazier was catching fire down the stretch.
The 2010 U.P. Final medalist and Copper Country's best golfer all season, he signed for a 74 that was pretty good – but not good enough.
“It's not like I played a bad round of golf. I can't be disappointed,” Lassila, a senior, said.
Lassila started his round with a rollercoaster: bogey on No. 9, par on 10, then birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey.
“I think I really could've heated up on the back nine. But I think every time I made a birdie, I followed it up with a bogey, and it just killed all momentum,” Lassila said.
Lassila finally put two pars together on 18 and 1, then birdied the par-five 2nd hole to get to even-par. But bogeys on No. 5 and his finishing hole, the long par-3 8th, kept him above par for the day. His 74 was still better than his medalist scores in two Western Peninsula Athletic Conference league meets on this course last week.
Key to Marquette's team success was two more golfers in the top five: third-place Jordan Frazier's 76 and just the second 78 of the year from fourth player Mike McGee.
Jordan Frazier, no relation to Scott, arrived from the Las Vegas, Nev., area to Houghton the night before the tournament, but this was no jet-setting trip. Frazier relocated from Nevada to Marquette to play Midget AAA hockey with the Marquette Electricians this season and drove back having not touched a club in four days.
“We won conference and took U.P.'s home to finish off my senior year, which is awesome,” Jordan Frazier said.
The other four Marquette golfers Wednesday were sophomores.
A freshman, Wyatt Liston, led host Houghton to a 323 in an attempt to defend its 2012 championship.
Liston started bogey-double bogey-double, but was even over the next 14 holes for a 78, to tie for fourth individually and all-U.P. honors.
“After the first four (holes), I figured that it can't get much worse, so only good scores from there on,” Liston said.
Sophomore Brendan Longhini scored a 79, one of just seven sub-80 scores on the day.
The other came from Ben Lasecki of third-place Gladstone. The Braves posted a 330. Rival Escanaba was fourth with a 339, followed by Kingsford (348).
After a U.P. prep golf season full of horrors like a Great Northern Conference meet last week played with temperatures in the mid-40s and winds in the low 30s, or a West PAC league schedule during which four meets were rescheduled and two cancelled outright – leading to three meets in three days last week – Wednesday was pleasant enough to put a smile on the faces of even the golfers who turned in a card full of bogeys.
The course was in remarkable shape considering it opened for the season just 15 days ago on May 14, the latest starting date in recorded history for the U.P.'s northernmost 18-hole track.
“(The weather) is awesome for today, but you wish you could've had it a couple other days as well,” Smith said.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette's Scott Frazier follows through on his tee shot on the 18th hole at Portage Lake Golf Course during Wednesday's U.P. Division 1 Final. Frazier went on to eagle the hole as part of a 1-under par 71, the medalist score. (Middle) Houghton's Brendan Longhini stares down a putt on the 18th green. He shot a 7-over par 79 for the Gremlins, who finished second to Marquette in the team competition. (Photos by Brandon Veale.)
Stretch Run, Sand Save Seal DeWitt Title
June 6, 2015
By Mark Meyer
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Standing in a greenside bunker at the 18th hole and staring at perhaps one of the most important shots of his high school career, DeWitt senior Geoffry Croley calmly grabbed his sand wedge and helped seal his team’s MHSAA title in dramatic fashion.
Croley’s unlikely birdie – a one-hopper off the flagstick and into the cup – was one of several key title-savers for the Panthers, who edged Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 594-595, to win the Division 2 championship at Forest Akers East on Saturday afternoon.
Croley’s younger brother, freshman Joey, rolled in a par putt on his last hole (the 16th) and earned a big pat on the back from coach Dave Koenigsknecht.
“A lot of big shots down the stretch, because we knew it was going to be tight,” said Koenigsknecht, whose team finished seventh last year. “We didn’t get off to a great start, but the kids battled all day and hung on at the end.”
Senior Owen Beyer, who shot a medalist round of 5-under-par 67 on Friday, led the Panthers with a two-day total of 2-under-par 142. Geoffry Croley finished three shots back at 145, Joey Croley carded a 153 and junior Ian Helm finished at 155. Senior Mike Coscarelli counted a 79 Saturday and finished at 160 for the two days.
The MHSAA title was the third in six years for DeWitt, which also captured Division 2 championships in 2010 and 2011.
“Ian Helm, Mike Coscarelli and Joey Croley have really improved in the past couple of weeks,” Koenigsknecht said. “As they started to shoot some scores in the 70s, their confidence picked up and made us a much better team heading into regionals.”
Walking down the fairway at the par-3 18th hole, Geoffry Croley was hoping to get up and down in two shots from the bunker.
“I knew we were close (with Cranbrook Kingswood) and had a feeling it might come down to the last hole,” Croley said. “I picked my spot, the ball took one hop, hit the stick and the tears started falling faster than the ball could hit the hole. What a special way to end the season.”
Senior Dylan Deogun led runner-up Cranbrook Kingswood with a 3-under-par 141 while sophomore Devin Deogun shot 145. Sophomore Wyatt Fryckman (154) and senior Matt Jacobs (155) completed the scoring for the Cranes, who were the defending champions and top-ranked team in Division 2 entering the Final.
Junior Spencer Schab led third-place Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern (603) with a 146 while senior Trevor Goslin carded a 144 (69-75) for fourth-place Dearborn Divine Child (605).
Hamilton senior Nick Carlson won his second individual Finals title by shooting an 8-under-par 64 to finish the tournament at 10-under-par 134.
“Yesterday (Friday) I didn’t have a whole lot right going for me, but today was the opposite,” said Carlson, who is headed to the University of Michigan. “I chipped in from 40 yards out on the 11th hole for birdie and made a 50-footer on the eighth hole, again for birdie. It was one of those days when a lot of very good things happened.
“If I didn’t hit a good drive or good approach, I was able to chip it close and save a shot here and there.”
Carlson won the Division 2 title as a freshman in 2012 and finished second the past two seasons, including last year at Forest Akers West.
“This last week of golf was the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” Carlson said. “I was loose, relaxed and really enjoying where I was at. On the last hole I just wanted to soak it all up and savor the moment.”
Hamilton coach Kevin Arnold has been watching Carlson play at Diamond Springs Golf Course in Hamilton since he was 5 years old.
“A real pleasure to coach and a fine young man,” Arnold said. “I didn’t do much for Nick other than to act as a sounding board for occasional advice. He’s worked long and hard to get to this point and I’m very happy for him. He deserves all the accolades because he’s worked hard to get to this point.”
PHOTOS: (Top) DeWitt’s Geoffry Croley watches his birdie chip on No. 18 on Saturday; it fell into the cup and helped decide the Division 2 title in the Panthers’ favor. (Middle) Hamilton’s Nick Carlson smiles after receiving his championship medal, the second of his career. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).