Golfers finish strong at conference

Finish third place on day two

Posted 9/14/21

The Panther golf team opened the Class 3A West Conference Tournament on Friday with a middling team score.

“We were in a pretty good position late in the day when we had a weather …

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Golfers finish strong at conference

Finish third place on day two

Posted

The Panther golf team opened the Class 3A West Conference Tournament on Friday with a middling team score.

“We were in a pretty good position late in the day when we had a weather delay,” said Powell High School golf coach Troy Hildebrand, “and when we came back out we just didn’t finish that round strong at all.”

That landed the squad dead last in the eight-team field.

However, the Powell boys rebounded on Pinedale’s Rendezvous Meadows Golf Course Saturday in a big way.

Playing their best golf of the season by far, the Panthers put together the third-best score of the day. Improving by an average of eight shots apiece, the boys vaulted a couple spots up on the leaderboard. Their 391 on Friday and 359 on Saturday landed the Panthers in sixth place, at 750, but they wound up only six shots out of fourth. 

“All season we have battled the blow-up holes and how we come back from those and Saturday for the first time we were able to keep the round together across the board,” Hildebrand said. “We are a pretty young team but that is a big step for this group.”

The coach is hoping that momentum carries over into this week’s state tournament.

Cody won the event with a two-day total of 670 (329-341). The Broncs were led by Hunter Hall, who shot a pair of 5-under par 67s to run away from the field by 31 shots. Meanwhile, Green River ran away with the girls’ title after posting the top three rounds of the tournament. They were led by Isabell Salas, who shot 85-73 to clear the field by 28 strokes.

PHS was led by Andrew Jones. He finished 13th overall — coming up just three shots short of All Conference honors — by shooting a 95 on day one and an 88 on Saturday.

“The 88 is the lowest tournament round of his career and should really show him what he is capable of,” Hildebrand said of Jones. “Both days he had some adversity during his round but he was able to limit the damage and post solid scores.”

Trey Scott, meanwhile, opened with a 100 before posting a career-best 88 on day two.

“[Scott] was beaming when he finished up,” Hildebrand said. “He did a great job of just keeping his ball in play and then he putted extremely well Saturday to complete his round.

“Trey is only going to get bigger and stronger moving forward and this type of complete round gives him a great model of how to keep his future rounds in the 80s hopefully,” the coach said.

Isaiah Woyak shot 97-92. After some ups and downs early in the season, Woyak “has been getting more and more consistent in every aspect of his game lately and has been working hard on the range,” Hildebrand said. “I hope that he carries those positive thoughts into Lander for the state tournament.”

Gunnar Erickson had four bad holes on Friday that pushed his opening round up to 99, the coach said, but he followed it up with a 91.

“Saturday he came back and played much more consistently throughout the day,” Hildebrand said. “Gunnar [Erickson] has had a very good season for us and I expect him to be playing his best next week in Lander.”

Rounding out the varsity, Will Jackson fired rounds of 105 and 111 to close out his season. Hildebrand said the sophomore made great strides this fall and showed some real potential.

“With another year of playing during the summer and continuing to grow he [Jackson] will be right back in the mix for a varsity spot next fall,” the coach said. “This was a solid week for Will and really matched up with how he has played all season.”

Meanwhile, Seth Siebert played his way onto the varsity squad for this week’s state tournament by shooting 103-106 at Rendezvous Meadows.

“He has been improving throughout the fall and this week fell right in line with his recent play,” Hildebrand said. “Seth [Siebert] is working on consistency in his game and he has done a good job of taking the pieces that he is working on in practice and applying them to his rounds each week.”

The Panthers will head to the Lander Golf Club Friday and Saturday for the season-ending Class 3A State Tournament.

Powell High School, Panther Golf

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