Burnham, Neisen Share Class AAA Girls Medal; Edina Usurps Team Crown

By Mike Fermoyle (mikefermoyle@gmail.com) 

COON RAPIDS -- In professional golf, the era of the Big 3 (Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus) began when Nicklaus won the U.S. Open as a PGA Tour rookie in 1962, and lasted for a little more than a decade. It ended, more or less, in 1973, the year that Palmer won his last regular tour event in the United States, at the Bob Hope Invitational (where he beat Nicklaus down the stretch), and then made his last run at a U.S. Open title a few  months later at Oakmont.

High school eligibility puts stricter rules on how long rivalries can last, but Minnesota girls golf is currently in a kind of Golden Age thanks to another Big 3 -- Kenzie Neisen of New Prague, Sarah Burnham of Wayzata and Celia Kuenster of Cretin-Derham Hall.

Neisen tied for second in the Class AAA portion of the state tournament three years ago, as an eighth-grader, and Burnham, who is also a member of Minnesota's remarkable Class of 2014, finished sixth in the same tournament. However, this era of the Big 3 didn't start until Kuenster became eligible to play golf at CDH as a freshman in 2011.

Since then, she and Neisen and Burnham have thoroughly dominated the junior girls golf landscape -- and also had a major impact on Minnesota women's golf overall.

With the exception of Stillwater's Cassie Deeg, no one else has cracked the top 3 in the MGA Girls High School Individual Rankings for as much so a single week during the last three seasons. And Kuenster, Neisen and Burnham have more than lived up to their lofty rankings with their results in post-season tournaments.

Kuenster tied Deeg for medalist honors in Class AAA at the state tournament two years ago. Neisen made a double bogey on the last hole and finished two behind in fourth place. Burnham was fifth.

Kuenster also won the Minnesota State Girls Junior Championship in 2011, beating Burnham in a playoff. Neisen would have been in the playoff, too, if she hadn't hit a wedge straight over the flagstick into a bunker on the final hole of regulation, and made a bogey.

A few weeks later, Kuenster capped off a remarkable summer when she beat the field by seven strokes at Hastings Country Club and became the youngest player -- at 15 years, 4 months and 7 days -- to win the Women's State Amateur. 

Last year, Kuenster won her second consecutive state high school championship and broke the record of lowest AAA score with a 141 (72-69). Neisen finished second again, two behind, the result of another double on the final hole. 

And once again, Kuenster won the State Girls Junior, this time by one stroke over Burnham. But Burnham went on to win the State Public Links Stroke Play Championship, and she also won the Women's State Amateur in a playoff over Neisen -- and was named the MGA Women's Player of the Year (also the MGA Junior Girls Player of the Year).

Considering all that, it seemed fitting that Neisen and Burnham should put their names on the list of state high school champions, which they did on Wednesday.

Burnham, playing with Kuenster, was tied for the lead with  Shakopee senior Alex Schmid when the day began. They had both shot 2-under-par 71's in Tuesday's first round. But Burnham had overcame a bogey-bogey start on Wednesday, which she did by making two late birdies on the front (East) nine at Bunker Hills, and she lit up the back nine with four more birdies on the way to a 69.

Neisen was playing roughly an hour behind, but she kept pace on the scorecard. She had shot 72 in the first round, but she produced a front nine of 1-under 35 in the second, which pulled her even with Burnham. Then, like Burnham, Neisen scorched the back nine to the tune of 33.

She capped it off by nearly driving the green at No. 18 (9 West, 295 yards, par 4) and then making a 15-foot putt for birdie. When the ball slam-dunked off the back of the cup and disappeared into the hole, it gave Neisen a closing 68, and an overall 140, which tied her with Burnham.

The 140 also broke Kuenster's year-old record for lowest score in the large-school class, and it tied the all-time record set by Katie Detlefsen when she won the Class A title (69-71--140) at Izaty's in 2006.

Kuenster ended up with 72 for the second day in a row and finished third at 144. 

Although she was frustrated by a recurring snap hook and never had anything close to her best stuff from tee to green -- and really didn't putt all that well, either -- Kuenster put on a remarkable display of how to manage a recalcitrant golf game and shoot a good score even when things aren't going your way.

She struggled mightily over the course of the two days. Nevertheless, she was still able to post a number that no one had ever shot at Bunker Hills between the time the large-school class moved there in 1990 and 2010, and that only five players -- Maggie Leland (143, 2010), Neisen (143, 2012), Kuenster (141, 2012), Neisen and Burnham (140, 2013) -- have shot since then.

Schmid, the North Dakota State recruit who was the Cinderella Story of the first day, took the lead Wednesday with a 35 on the front nine, and she was still one ahead of Burnham until she four-putted the 14th green for a double bogey. She wound up with a 75 and finished alone in fourth place with a 146.

The team championship went to Edina, and you might want to get used to that. Emily Romanow, a junior who finished sixth with a 150 (74-76), will be back next year, and so will Hannah Hankinson, a freshman who finished 14th, Payton Follestad (junior) and Katie Engelking (freshman). Follestad and Engelking tied for 32nd.

Hankinson, Engelking and captain Megan Heiring are also members of the Hornets' tennis team, which is a perennial state champion.

The Hornets led by four after Day 1 and won by 11 with a cumulative 644. Alexandria was second  with a 655, and last year's champion, New Prague, finished third with a 660.   

New Prague won the team championship last year. It was the second state championship in three years for the Trojans and their coach, Matt Shetka, who also had a state gymnastics team title on his resume. But Shetka didn't get a chance to be part of this year's defense of the championship, because he died of a heart attack while shoveling snow in December. 

Neisen shed quite a few tears this spring, thinking about Shetka. 

"It's been hard," she admitted early in the season. 

But at Bunker Hills this week, it was a little bit like Ben Crenshaw and Harvey Penick at Augusta in the 1995 Masters. Penick had been Crenshaw's coach at the University of Texas in the early 1970s, and the two became close friend.

Penick died a week before the '95 Masters, and Crenshaw won the tournament. Afterward, he said he felt Penick's presence helping him throughout the 72 holes.

Neisen said essentially the same thing on Wednesday, after collecting her first-place medal: "There were a lot of time when I was sure he was out there."

Of course, it also helped that she was ripping her driver 260 yards right down the middle of the fairway. That enabled her to hit a 9-iron to the green for her second shot at the 430-yard, par-5 11th hole (No. 2 West).

Her new knock-down wedge shot came in handy, too. She used it to good effect at the short, par-4 13th, pitching to 5 feet and making the putt for birdie, which got her to 4 under for the tournament. 

At the 440-yard 14th, Neisen hit a 5-iron to the green and two-putted for another birdie. The 405-yard, par-5 15th should have been a gimme birdie, but a second shot that was flaired to the right left her 30 yards from the pin. She hit a nice pitch to 5 feet, but then lipped out, and had to settle for a par. 

Neisen came to the 18th tee 5 under par, one behind Burnham, and she was well aware of her situation.

"I knew I needed to make a birdie," she said.

The drive was the key to the last hole, and she hit it perfectly. It wound up going 270 yards and ending up in the left rough, 15 yards short of the green. She then pitched to 15 feet.

"I just felt really calm the whole day," Neisen said, "and I still felt the same way on the last hole. I just thought it was my turn, and I was going to make the putt. That's really all I remember. I can't remember what happened after I hit the putt -- except that it went in."

The putt wasn't exactly hit with perfect speed. It was hammered. Maybe it was Shetka's presence manifesting itself again, -- who knows? -- but the ball slammed into the back of the cup, popped up just above the lip, and then dropped back in, thereby making Neisen and Burnham the co-champions of 2013.

"I'm really happy," Burnham said. "There are so many great players in this field, and Kenzie is a friend of mine. To tie her for the championship is a great accomplsihment, and I thought her making that putt the way she did was a perfect way to end the tournament. What else could you ask for?"  


GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL GOLF

State tournament 

Class AAA 

At Bunker Hills Golf Course

Par 73

Final results

1. Edina                 321-323--644

2. Alexandria        325-630--655

3. New Prague     332-328--660

4. Red Wing          337-336--673

5. Blaine                347-341--688

6. Eagan                347-361--708

7. Andover             350-366--716

8. Stillwater            363-361--724

Individuals

T1. Sarah Burnham, Wayzata                      71-69--140

T1. Kenzie Neisen, New Prague                  72-68--140

3. Ceilia Kuenster, Cretin-Derham Hall       72-72--144

4. Alex Schmid, Shakopee                             71-75--146

5. Brenna Lervick, Chanhassen                    74-75--149

6. Emily Romanow, Edina                               74-76--150

7. Sierra Langlie, Andover                              73-78--151

8. Lexi Bollant, Buffalo                                     78-77--155

9. Amdanda Bigger, Alexandria                     40-76--156

T10. Dani DelGreco                                          79-78--157

T10. Taylor Ledwein                                          77-80--157

T10. Kenzie Sexe, Prior Lake,                         80-77--157

T10. Stephanie Herzog, Red Wing                  80-77--157