Leaf Shoots 69 to Lead AAA Boys; Wayzata Looks for Another Team Title

COON RAPIDS -- A fairly common complaint about the boys Class AAA portion of the Minnesota state high school golf tournament for at least the last decade has been that the course at Bunker Hills GC was set up too short, somewhere around 6,500 yards. 

Anyone who has seen high school kids hit drivers more than 300 yards -- or 9-irons 170 yards -- knows that they don't need to Play It Forward.

This year, the State High School League has made the eminently sensible decision to move the boys back, and play the course a lot closer to its full length of just under 7,000 yards.

The move to the back tees probably didn't cause much trepidation in very many of the contestants at the 2013 tournament, and certainly not in Winona senior William Leaf. He demonstrated that he could handle the back tees at Bunker Hills in competition last July when he shot a 68 from there in the second round of the State Open.

Golfers who haven't completed their high school eligibility occasionally pop up near the top of the leaderboard in the State Amateur, and three State Ams have been won by high schoolers: Pat Sawyer (1930), Bob Barbarossa (1964) and Mike Christensen (1995). But high school undergraduates are an extremely rare site on the leaderboard at the State Open.

Leaf fell back with a final-round 77 and tied for the 19th. But it was still an impressive showing, and it might have given him a slight advantage over the rest of the Class AAA boys field at this year's state tournament. It sort of looked that way on Tuesday, as he shot a 3-under-par 69 to grab the lead.

Actually, he probably didn't need any help. After all, he had the lowest scoring average of any Class AAA boy this spring, 71.3 strokes per round, and he came to Bunker Hills this week ranked No. 2 by the MGA, right behind Wayzata junior Jack Holmgren.

Holmgren, as it turns out, is in second place going into Wednesday's final round, after a 71.

It's hardly a two-man race, however. There are 23 players lined up within four strokes behind Holmgren.

Four are tied for third place with 73's, including Lakeville North junior Freddy Thomas, who finished third in last year's tournament. Also in that four-way tie are Benilde-St. Margaret's junior Riley Gannon and two sophomores -- Peter Jones of Owatonna and Sam Sicard of Stillwater.

Then comes a fivesome. Cody Seal, a senior from Chanhassen, is in the group, along with juniors Zach Peters (Eden Prairie), David Scharenbroich (St. Cloud Tech) and Tom St. Martin (Wayzata), plus one sophomore, Matthew Radke (Hastings).

Holmgren, even though he's still a year away from graduating, has already been a part of three state championship teams at Wayzata. The Trojans won the crown outright in 2009 and again in 2010, then tied Rogers for the title in 2011. (The High School League does not break ties for first at the golf tournament in either team or individual competition.)

Now they're in a position to win again. They combined for a 298 (four scores count) on Tuesday and lead second-place Forest Lake by two strokes. Eden Prairie is three back at 301, and Lakeville North is fourth at 307.       


BOYS HIGH SCHOOL GOLF 

State Tournament

Class AAA

At Bunker Hills Golf Course

Par 72

Coon Rapids

First-round results 

1. Wayzata                        298

2. Forest Lake                  300

3. Eden Prairie                 301

4. Lakeville North             307

5. Hastings                        309

6. White Bear Lake          313

7. Alexandria                     315

8. Rogers                           322

Individuals

1. William Leaf, Winona                       69

2. Jack Holmgren, Wayzata                71

T3. Peter Jones, Owatonna                72

T3. Riley Gannon, Benilde-SM          72

T3. Sam Sicard, Stillwater                  72

T3. Freddy Thomas, Lakeville N.      72

T7. Cody Seal, Chanhassen              73

T7. Zach Peters, Eden Prairie            73

T7. David Scharenbroich, SC Tech   73

T7. Tom St. Martin, Wayzata               73

T7. Matthew Radke, Hastings             73