MEDFORD GOLF - Hintz gets a GNC win; Raiders struggle in first three league meets

MEDFORD GOLF

The names may change from year to year, but the Lakeland Thunderbirds’ dominance remains a constant in Great Northern Conference golf.

The seven-team league has held the first three of its seven scheduled meets in the past week and the T-Birds have won all of them to open up a commanding 5.5point lead over Northland Pines in the team standings.

Their third GNC win of the spring came Tuesday at Antigo’s Bass Lake Country Club, where they shot a 324 to beat a much-improved Tomahawk team by 13 strokes. Northland Pines and Rhinelander tied for third at 343.

For the Medford Raiders, who entered the season with inexperience and uncertainty in its varsity lineup, it’s been a bumpy start to the GNC season. Tuesday was their second straight sixth-place finish as they posted a team score of 374 that beat the host Red Robins by three shots. That puts Medford in sixth place in the standings by one point, 5-4, over the Robins. Mosinee was fifth in Tuesday’s meet at 350.

Senior Zach Hintz has been Medford’s consistent leader and he added three points to his total in the GNC’s individual standings with an eighth-place finish. He carded an 83 (44-39) on the par-71 course. His 4-over par on the back nine included a birdie on the par-4, 398-yard 18th hole and four pars.

Hintz has 14 points through three GNC meets, good for a sixth-place tie with Mosinee’s Braiden Hoehn.

The Raiders got a big day from sophomore Fletcher Frombach, who was entered as Medford’s number-five player. He had his best round of the year with a 92 (44-48). He had four pars and everything else was double-bogey or better except for one triple on the par-3 17th. He tied Lakeland’s Jaydan Schilling for 23rd.

Alex Wanke snuck over the 100 mark with a 99 that tied him for 29th in the meet. Grant Neubauer and Fischer Thums both shot 100s that tied them for 31st.

Lakeland’s Davis Kock was the day’s top golfer with a 3-over-par 74. He jumped into second place in the overall standings with 22 points. His teammate, Jeremy Hensen is the overall leader with 23.5 points. He was Tuesday’s runner-up with a 75, two shots ahead of Rhinelander’s Sam Schoppe, who holds third place overall with 18 points. Tomahawk’s Austin Lamer and Samuel Shrock of Northland Pines both shot 79s.

Medford competed at the Nekoosa Invitational Wednesday. GNC competition continues after that with some changes to the schedule. The meet at Lakeland originally scheduled for today, Thursday, has been moved to Tuesday and will be played at the Minocqua Country Club rather than Timber Ridge Golf Course. To accommodate that move, Tuesday’s originally scheduled meet at Rhinelander’s Northwood Golf Course has been bumped up to Monday. Both meets start at 3 p.m.

GNC #2 Friday on a little bit shorter course at Tomahawk’s Inshalla Country Club, Medford placed sixth with a score of 366 in the second GNC meet of the spring. The Raiders outscored Antigo by 14 strokes.

Lakeland held off a challenge from Rhinelander, 312-315 to win its second straight GNC meet, while Northland Pines was third at 319. Tomahawk (334) and Mosinee (342) were well off the pace.

On a day where individual scores were low on the par-70 course, Hintz’s 79 was good for 10th place, giving one point in the standings. Along with six pars, Hintz recorded two eagles during his round, both on par-3s. His first came on the 152yard third hole and he got the next one on the 160-yard 16th. He had just one double bogey.

Neubauer shot an 89 to land in 25th place for the day. He started on the 17th hole and parred a 502-yard par-5, bogeyed a 406-yard par-4 and then shot a 48 on the par-35 front nine. He finished with a run of three straight pars and wound up with a 41 on the back nine.

Thums had the best day for the Raiders, compared to his average, shooting a solid 92 (46-46) that put him in 27th place. He parred three par-5s on holes 17, eight and 10. Jason Woller filled the number-three Golf team into GNC play

spot in the lineup and shot a 106 to tie for 32nd and Frombach was 34th at 112.

After not even finishing in the top 10 in meet one, Schoppe jumped into individual contention by winning Friday’s meet with his 2-over-par 72. He won by two strokes over Kock and four shots over Hensen. Shrock and Anderson Kielty of Northland Pines and Alex Steppke of Mosinee tied for fifth with 77s. At the time, Steppke took over the GNC’s individual lead with 15 points, a half-point ahead of Hensen.

GNC #1 The Great Northern Conference championship chase teed off Thursday with six-time defending champion Lakeland getting off to another good start with a first-place team score of 331 on a rainy, cool day at Mosinee’s Indianhead Golf Course.

The big news for Medford was Hintz winning the meet individually. He shot a 4-over-par 76 (38-38) to earn top honors by one stroke over Steppke and by two strokes over four golfers –– Talan Pockat and Hensen of Lakeland, Ean Perry of Antigo and Hoehn.

Hintz started with a bogey on the par-4 15th hole and then rattled off three pars. After a bogey on hole one, he parred seven of the next eight holes. His big hole of the day was the par-5, 489-yard 11th, which he eagled.

Cooper Klingbeil shot a 97 for Medford to tie for 26th place, Neubauer was a shot behind at 98 for 30th place, Frombach tied for 31st at 103 and Wanke was 33rd at 105.

The Raiders finished seventh as a team in the opening meet with a score of 374. Lakeland was four shots ahead of Northland Pines and seven ahead of host Mosinee. Rhinelander was fourth at 346, followed by Tomahawk (353) and Antigo (367).

Sheboygan Falls

On April 30, Medford played The Bull at Pinehurst Farms and placed 14th out of 16 teams with a team score of 400 in the Sheboygan Falls Invitational.

Hintz snuck into the top 10 out of 80 golfers, tying West Bend West’s Anthony Pietrangelo for that spot with a 12-overpar 84. Starting on hole 14, Hintz parred three of his first four holes and birdied the par-5, 481-yard fourth hole. He was 6-over with 42s on both halves of the course.

Klingbeil had one of his best days of the spring to that point, shooting a 95 that was good for a 39th-place tie. He parred five holes, including the par-5 13th and 17th holes.

Wanke tied for 67th at 107. He had a run of three straight pars on holes 9-11. Thums tied for 71st at 114 and Evan Fechhelm was 75th with a 120.

Kettle Moraine Lutheran won the team championship with a score of 333, while Kohler (340), Plymouth (347), West De Pere (349) and West Bend West (358) rounded out the top five.

Ryan Spaeth of West Bend West was the individual champion, carding a 6over-par 78, one shot ahead of Plymouth’s Brennan Helmer. David Van Dixhorn of Kohler and William Strohm of Kettle Moraine Lutheran tied for third with 81s.

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Jason Woller tries to will the ball into the hole during Friday’s play at Tomahawk. JEREMY MAYO/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS