The Amherst golf team made the most of its first appearance in the WIAA state tournament by winning the Division 3 championship by six strokes Monday and Tuesday, June 4-5, at University Ridge in Madison.
"Everybody played well. We kept the ball in play; we didn't have a lot of penalty strokes as a team. We didn't have a lot of three putting," Amherst co-coach Tim Harvey said.
The team held a two-stroke lead going into the second day of the tournament, but was able to widen the lead on day two even though Divisions 2 and 3 only played nine holes because of inclement weather. Harvey said that the shortened format was an advantage for his team. "It's a good deal that we got off to a good start and shot a 322 on Monday. Everybody had to chase us," he said.
"We told the kids the pressure isn't on us, but on the other teams," said co-coach Pete Sippel. "We told them to play it safe."
The final scores for the tournament were Amherst, 484; Osseo-Fairchild, 490; Wayland Academy, 498; Kenosha-St. Joseph, 507; Wrightstown, 509; University School of Milwaukee, 509; Washburn, 519; and Darlington, 544.
Amherst's Brian Pionkowski led the team by shooting a 115, which tied for the fifth best individual score at the tournament in Division 3. The other team members' scores were Jeremy Sherf, 122; Matt Clinton, 123; Jeff Cloninger, 124; and Andy Harvey, 144.
The team played the back nine for the final round, and Sippel said Cloninger came through. After having a 46 on the back nine on Monday, he had a 40 on Tuesday, knocking six strokes off his score, Sippel said.
Following the coaching advice, Sippel said Sherf played it safe on a par-3 hole. "He went to a landing area to the right so he didn't have to go over as much water," Sippel said.
Pionkowski attributed the team's performance to the fact that they concentrated on playing the course and not the pressure of trying to win a championship. "We just thought about playing the course and not exactly what it meant if we played well or we played poorly. We just went out and played golf," Pionkowski said.
The team's win is even more impressive considering that none of the team members had ever played at University Ridge before and that this is only the team's fourth year in competition.
Harvey said part of the reason the team has done so well so quickly is because of the high level of completion they play against all year. "Our JV squad would have beaten just about every varsity team we played against this year and the competition in our conference is pretty tough. Bonduel has been in the state tournament a couple of times and Little Wolf from Manawa has been at the state tournament," Harvey said.