Auggies Hold on -- Barely -- to Win MIAC; Par Works for Sienko

By Mike Fermoyle (mikefermoyle@gmail.com)

COON RAPIDS -- Augsburg coach Eric Rolland had it figured out almost down to the last stroke where the Auggies were going to need to be on Monday afternoon to win the MIAC men's golf championship at Bunker Hills GC. What he was utterly wrong about was how they would get there. 

Rolland predicted the Auggies, who had built a 10-stroke lead over the first 36 holes, would need to shoot 304 over the final 18 holes, which would have given them a three-day total of 894 (four of five scores count each day). That was because he was guessing that St. Thomas might very well shoot 295 and end up at 895.

As it turned out, the Auggies did win -- by one. They posted a final-day aggregate of 305 to finish at 895.

St. Thomas shot 296 on Monday, which put the Tommies' 54-hole total at 896.

"Basically, I was right about that," Rolland noted. "It's just that I was completely wrong about the other part. I was thinking that the way we'd do it would be that our top two players -- junior Brett Gaustad and senior Brandon Jones -- would carry us. I was thinking they'd shoot about 148. That's 4 over for the two of them, which would have given our other guys some margin for error. All we would have needed would have been a couple of 78's. But then we got out on the course, and Brett was 4 over after three holes. So much for the plan." 

Gaustad was able to stop the bleeding. After getting off to a bogey-bogey-double bogey start on the East Nine, he birdied two of the next three holes and played the last 15 holes in even par on the way to a 76, for an overall 222 and a tie for fifth place. 

Jones got off to a better start than Gaustad, but he was bleeding strokes all the way around the course and didn't make a single birdie. The result was a 78 and a tie for 25th at 233.

"So somebody else was going to have to be the hero for us," Rolland said, "and that was Michael Barrette." 

Barrette, a junior from Grand Rapids, was the No. 4 player on the Augsburg team coming into the MIAC tournament with a scoring average of 78.4 strokes per round (Gaustad's average is 73.6, and Jones' 74.9). But he was the best player in the field during the last two rounds at Bunker Hills, shooting a 70 on Sunday and closing with a 73 on Monday. That gave him a cumulative 219 -- and sole possession of second place in the individual competition.

"Michael picked a great time to play his best golf of the season," declared Rolland, a former Division III All-American for the Auggies who took over as their head coach in January of 2014. (He's also an assistant pro at Woodhill Country Club.)  

This was the second MIAC golf championship in Augsburg's history -- the first came in 1995, when Rolland played on the team -- and it earned the Auggies an automatic berth in the NCAA DIII Championships next May.

St. Thomas still has a chance to get into the NCAA tournament, but it will need an at-large bid. Only conference champions get automatic invitations. That was how much the one stroke that separated the Auggies and the Tommies at the end of the day on Monday meant.

Last year's winner, Bethel, made a spirited defense of its title. The Royals started the final round 16 strokes behind but put together a 295 to finish six back at 901, tied for third with Gustavus Adolphus, which shot 296 on Monday. 

St. John's, a winner of two national championships in the last decade (2007 and '08), had  to settle for fifth with a 914. Concordia (Moorhead) was sixth, at 915, but the Cobbers had the best score on Day 3, a 294. 

Although St. Thomas came up short in its attempt to win the team title, the Tommies did take the individual crown back to St. Paul.

Pete Sienko said afterward that he really didn't have any goals when the tournament began, except to stay right around par. That was what he did -- it's essentially what the sophomore from Spring Lake Park has done all season (his scoring average is 72.4) -- and it turned out to be a formula for success.

He shot an even-par 72 on Monday, which put him at even-par 216 for the tournament, and that was good enough for a three-stroke victory.

Sienko wasn't flashy. He didn't overpower the course, didn't make a lot of spectacular up-and-down's for pars, and he didn't make putts from all over the place. Mainly, what he did was hit fairways and greens in regulation (15), and two-putt for pars.

His three birdies all came on short putts. He hit a wedge to 6 feet at the 368-yard, par-4 second hole (No. 2 on the East Nine), hit another wedge to 5 feet at the 515-yard, par-5 sixth and then hit a long iron to within 3 feet at the 220-yard, par-3 seventh. There were only three greens that he missed, but he bogeyed two of those holes (Nos. 9 and 12), and he three-putted the 15th green for his other bogey.

Sienko spent his freshman year of college at North Dakota State, before transferring to St. Thomas. Except for a match-play tournament, he hadn't won any college titles before this one, but he was probably due, having had two seconds, a third and a fourth.

The 36-hole leader, Cade Montplasir of Concordia, probably should have tied Barrette for second at 219. But it was one of those days for Montplasir, and at the 380-yard 18th hole (No. 9 West), he got tangled up in the trees to the left of the fairway and made a double-bogey 6, which capped off a 77 and dropped him into a tie for third at 220, along with Max Savini of Gustavus.

Savini had a 71, the second-best score of the day. Only Concordia's Landon Poss did better. He got around in 69, which bumped him up into a tie for fifth at 222, along with Gaustad and Bethel's Dillon John, who closed with a 72.       


MEN'S COLLEGE GOLF 

MIAC Championships

At Bunker Hills Golf Course

Par 72, 6,877 yards

Coon Rapids

Final results 

1. Augsburg                       292-298-305--895

2. St. Thomas                    301-299-296--896

T3. Gustavus Adolphus     304-301-296--901

T3. Bethel                          306-300-295--901

5. St John's                        310-301-303--914

6. Concordia                      316-305-294--915

7. St. Olaf                          324-311-297--932

8. Carleton                         326-317-308--951

9. Macalester                     331-329-320--980

10 St. Mary's                      337-332-326--995

Individuals

1. Pete Sienko, St. Thomas         71-73-72--216

2. Michael Barrette, Augsburg     76-70-73--219

T3. Cade Montplasir, Concordia  73-70-77--220

T3. Max Savini, Gustavus            74-75-71--220

T5. Brett Gaustad, Augsburg        70-76-76--222

T5. Dillon John, Bethel                  78-74--72--222

T5. Landon Poss, Concordia         78-75-69--222

T8. Jack Riester, St. Thomas         74-77-72--223

T8. Bennett Smed, Bethel             76-74-73--223

10. Andrew Krasaway, Gustavus  76-74-75--225

T11. Chris Winge, St. Olaf              80-75-71--226

T11. Charlie Johnson, St. Olaf        77-77-72--226

13. Chris Captain, Gustavus            77-75-75-227

T14. Mack Farley, St. John's            78-75-75--228

T14. Riley Gannon, St. Thomas       80-72-76--228