'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.

Click for full results.

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.)

Iron Mountain's Pigeon Holds On to Finish 1st, Hancock Claims Team Title

By Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com

May 29, 2024

CRYSTAL FALLS – Iron Mountain junior Cooper Pigeon started Wednesday’s Upper Peninsula Division 2 Final with a birdie.

He made sure the rough patch that followed was short lived – and it’s a good thing he did, because Hancock’s Jackson Sintkowski made sure there wasn’t much margin for error.

Pigeon carded a 76, a single stroke ahead of Sintkowski, to win the medalist honor at Young’s Golf Course.

“He has the mindset that he doesn’t let that bother him,” Iron Mountain coach Steve Flaminio said. “He turned it around and got a couple birdies and righted the ship. He figured it out like he always does and started playing pretty strong.”

It wasn’t an easy course, nor was it a perfect day to golf. The sun was out, but it was windy, which could exaggerate any minor errors, Pigeon said.

Some of the pin placements were tough, Flaminio said, and the greens were super fast – Flaminio watched kids three and four putt many times throughout the day. 

“There were some young guys out there struggling. Cooper figured it out, and that was key,” he said.

The Finals title was Pigeon’s first. He knew he had a chance to win after shooting a 73 in his last round at this course.

Hancock’s Jackson Sintkowski follows his drive on the same hole.“But you have to play well, and you can’t get ahead of yourself,” he said. 

The bulk of the U.P. summer awaits him and he plays golf almost daily, so he could certainly be a force to be reckoned with next season as well.

“It’s sweet; hopefully we can get another one next year,” Pigeon said.

Flaminio said the rest of the team was excited for their individual champ because they can see how hard he works at his craft.

“So to see him come home as medalist in the U.P. is pretty awesome,” he said.

Sintkowski, the runner-up from Hancock, did leave with some hardware himself as he led the Bulldogs to their first U.P. Finals team title since they won Division 2 back-to-back in 2013 and 2014.

He was one of four Bulldogs to finish among the top 10 individuals – Bryce Hanner placed fifth with an 83, Kirby Storm was sixth with an 86 and Drew Sturos tied for 10th with an 88.

Hancock competes in the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference, where it finished runner-up to Division I Houghton throughout much of the season. That doesn’t mean the Bulldogs have been golfing poorly.

“The kids have been playing well all year,” Hancock coach Paul Sintkowski said. 

The Bulldogs came into this tournament with the lowest team average, so they considered themselves the favorites and lived up to that high expectation.

“We had the guys to get it done today, but you still got to get it done,” said Sintkowski, who earned his first U.P. team title in nine years of coaching. “They got it done today. I’m real proud of these guys.”

Hancock was led by the West-PAC Player of the Year, Jackson Sintkowski, a junior. And their team got a big boost this season when Hanner decided to join the golf team.

“Bryce Hanner was a nice addition to our team this year,” Coach Sintkowski said of the senior. “He decided to play golf this year, and that really bolstered our lineup down the stretch. It gave an extra solid player where we could always count on a good score for him.”

Painesdale Jeffers finished as the team runner-up, 15 strokes behind Hancock, 333-348. St. Ignace was third, Iron Mountain fourth and Munising fifth.

Owen Kuehnau of Stephenson carded an 81 to take third place individually, and St. Ignace’s Sawyer Graham was fourth with an 82.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS (Top) Iron Mountain's Cooper Pigeon drives on No. 14 at Young’s Golf Course on Wednesday. (Middle) Hancock’s Jackson Sintkowski follows his drive on the same hole. (Photos by Jason Juno.)