Schmid, Burnham Shoot 71's, Lead Kuenster, Neisen by 1 in Class AAA Girls

By Mike Fermoyle (mikefermoyle@gmail.com) 

COON RAPIDS -- The first Minnesota girls high school state tournament was played in 1977 at Forest Hills Golf Club. A year later, Lisa Kluver of Alexandria won the individual championship with a 36-hole score of 147.

In 1981, after the girls tournament had been split into two classes, Hopkins' Jody Rosenthal (a future LPGA Tour winner) matched that 147 at Majestic Oaks. Kelly Kirwin of Grand Rapids tied the record in 1996 at Bunker Hills -- at roughly 5,800 yards, a substantially tougher course for girls than either Forest Hills or Majestic Oaks -- and Samantha Sommers of St. Cloud Apollo won the third of her state Class AA titles with a 147 in 2007, also at Bunker Hills.

But no one in the large-school class could do any better, and even the winners often did a lot worse. As a matter of fact, in the first four years after the AA girls moved to Bunker Hills (1990 to '93), no one broke 160. The winning score 20 years ago, in 1993, was 167.

It wasn't until 2010 that Maggie Leland, also from Alexandria -- she took lessons from Lisa Kluver (now Lisa Grimes) -- finally broke the 32-year-old record by posting a 143 (74-69) to win what had become Class AAA.

Leland's record lasted only two years. A year ago, New Prague sophomore Kenzie Neisen would have tied the record by shooting 143 (69-74), except that it had been broken an hour earlier by another sophomore, Cretin-
Derham Hall's Celia Kuenster, who came from three behind on the second day to win her second straight AAA championship with a 4-under-par 69, and a total of 141.

That was a fairly accurate measure of how much girls high school golf in Minnesota has improved over the last two decades. Whereas just shooting 80 for two days at Bunker was good enough to win the tournament in the early '90s, and two days of being around 75 generally worked for the next 15 years (Hillary Homeyer, a future U.S. Women's Open champion won the girls AA high school crown with a 152 in 1997), if you want to be the medalist in the large-school class now, you'd probably better be under par.

On Tuesday, in the first round of this year's tournament, Wayzata junior Sarah Burnham and Shakopee senior Alex Schmid both shot 71's and share the lead, but they are only one stroke clear of last year's top two finishers: Kuenster and Neisen.

Andover's Sierra Langlie, a junior, just like Burnham, Kuenster and Neisen (the girls Class of 2014, Minnesota's strongest ever, is the main reason for the high level of play at last year's tournament and this year's), shot a 73 and is in sole possession of fifth place.

One behind her, at 74, are Chanhassen senior Brenna Lervick and Edina junior Emily Romanow.  

Another indication of the dramatic rise in the level of play by Minnesota girls is that the final foursome of the day -- Burnham, Schmid, Kuenster and Lervick -- were a combined 4 under par as a group.

That had never happened before in any Minnesota girls high school tournament. No foursome of girls -- and probably not any foursome of boys either, for that matter -- had ever been under par collectively, and certainly not as many as 4 under.  

"It was really fun, with everyone playing well," Kuenster said, although the reigning State Girls Junior champion (she has won that title twice in a row, as well) wasn't all that thrilled with her own performance. "I was snap-hooking my driver. I hit four fairways all day. I need to go practice."

Kuenster wasn't necessarily holding her putting in high esteem, either.

""My putter wasn't solid," she said. "I did a lot of things wrong today. But I was patient, and I managed to shoot a decent score even though I didn't hit a lot of great shots."

"Chipping" was the key to holding her round together. And course management, which Kuenster probably does better than anyone else in the field.

She saved a few pars from less-than-advantageous positions, most notably on the 11th hole (No. 2 West, 430 yards, par 5), where she pull-hooked her tee shot into the forest/hazard, took a penalty stroke, hit her next shot into the right greenside bunker, but was able to get up and down from there.

Her only bogey came at the 18th (No. 9 West, 350, par 4), where she snap-hooked another drive -- but it still traveled roughly 270 yards. She punched her second shot to the right and just short of the green, chipped to 10 feet and missed the putt, thus slipping back from 2 under par to 1 under.

Neisen, who has finished two strokes out of first in each of the last two years, got off to a miserable start, with a bogey at No. 1 (1 East) and a double at No. 2 (2 East). But she bounced back with three consecutive birdies at the fourth, fifth and sixth holes.

Basically, she just overpowered the par-5's Tuesday on the way to her 72. Probably the longest hitter among the contenders for the Class AAA crown, Neisen hit a 6-iron to the green at No. 4 (4 East, 440 yards), a 4-iron to the green at No. 6 (6 East, 475), an 8-iron to No. 11 and a 4-iron to No. 14 (5 West, 430). She also hit a wedge close at the par-4 fifth (5 East) for her other birdie.

"I've been practicing a lot with my wedges," she said, "probably more than anything else. It's helping, I think. I've hit a lot of good wedge shots in the last couple of weeks." 

Burnham, the reigning Women's State Amateur champ -- and the 2012 MGA Women's Player of the Year, as well as MGA Junior Girls Player of the Year -- said she was nervous on the front (East) nine. Then she looked at the scoreboard, realized that she was one of the leaders, with a 1-under 35, and relaxed. 

She proceeded to birdie the 10th (1 West), par-5 11th, par-5 15th and 16th holes. Her group was on the 16th tee when play was stopped for a little more than a half-hour on Tuesday. When play was resumed, she hit two nearly perfect shots at the 360-yard, par-4 16th (7 West) and made a 5-footer for birdie. But she, like Kuenster, bogeyed the 18th hole. 

The only player in the final foursome who escaped the 18th unscathed was Schmid. At least, she made a par. But she felt that she should have done better on the closing hole, too, because she hit a 9-iron to 4 feet and then lipped out the birdie putt. 

To anyone who hasn't been paying close attention, it might seem surprising that Schmid's name is at the top of the leaderboard. She hasn't been talked about or written about nearly as much as the Big 3 from the junior class -- Burnham, Kuenster and Neisen -- but she finished fifth at the state tournament last year, and she's played well since the (delayed) beginning of the 2013 season.

"I expected to play well, because I really worked hard this winter," she pointed out. "I was practicing for three or four hours a day (at Golf Zone in Chaska). The only thing I couldn't practice that much was the short game, and that's been OK."

Her first real test was the first Missota Conference tournament of the season. She shot 70 and won medalist honors, ahead of Neisen, then did it again with a 68 in the second Missota tournament.  

"She (Neisen) is one of my best friends," Schmid said. "I play with her a lot, and that helps, I think. She's one of the best players in the state, and if I can hold my own against her, then I know that I can play against anybody at the state tournament."

It also helped Schmid's confidence that she shot a 71 in the second round of the Section 2AAA tournament last week to tie Neisen (70-76) for the first-place medal with 36-hole aggregates of 146.

The Shakopee senior and North Dakota State recruit came into the state tournament as the No. 4 player in the MGA Girls Individual Rankigns, behind No. 1 Kuenster, No. 2 Burnham and No. 3 Neisen.

Schmid, who isn't as long as Neisen or Kuenster, still managed to do some damage on the par-5's Tuesday. She blasted out of greenside bunker at No. 4 (East) and made a birdie there and hit wedges close for birdies at the two consecutive 5's on the West Nine, No. 14 and 15.

As for the team competition, Edina is leading with a combined score of 321, Alexandria is second, four behind at 325, and the defending champs from New Prague are third at 332. Red Wing, which won it fourth state title in 2011, is fourth going into Wednesday's final round at 337.   


GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL GOLF

State tournament 

Class AAA 

At Bunker Hills Golf Course

Par 73

First-round results

1. Edina                 321

2. Alexandria        325

3. New Prague     332

4. Red Wing          337

T5. Eagan              347

T5. Blaine              347

7. Andover             350

8. Stillwater            363

Individuals

T1. Alex Schmid, Shakopee                         71

T1. Sarah Burnham, Wayzata                      71

T3. Ceilia Kuenster, Cretin-Derham Hall   72

T3. Kenzie Neisen, New Prague                 72

5. Sierra Langlie, Andover                            73

T6. Brenna Lervick, Chanhassen                74

T6. Emily Romanow, Edina                          74

8. Taylor Ledwein, New Prague                  77

T9. Diane Gibas, Eden Prairie                     78

T9. Lexi Bollant, Buffalo                                78