Sports
The golfing adjustment bureau
06/08/2015
TMCHS players adapt to unfavorable conditions during Class A tournament
Pictured: Seth Gillis fires at the pin on the course's toughest hole, No. 8.
Golf is already one of the most challenging games in sports and the addition of weather’s harsh elements to both rounds of the North Dakota Class A State Golf Tournament in Fargo made the going tough for the majority of the field.
Despite the natural adversity, however, Turtle Mountain High School Head Golf Coach Chris Gillis felt good about his team’s history-making presence in this year’s event.
“The wind was swirling a lot,” Gillis said, pointing out how Edgewood Golf Course’s tree-lined fairways created tunnels of unpredictablity for his charges. “The guys would club up or club down and we weren’t hitting greens so we had to scramble to save par. The guys were frustrated.”
Gillis wasn’t making excuses and was quick to point out that, “everyone had to play” in the dire conditions.
What impressed the coach, however, was how each one of his golfers tackled the challenge.
“We adjusted pretty well,” Gillis said. “Everybody played better on day two.”
At the end of the two-day tourney, Belcourt had a top 15 individual golfer and took ninth overall out of 12 teams.
Individually, Jackson Davis was 13-over and finished in 12th place. He shot 7-over on day one and improved by one stroke on day two.
Seth Gillis tied for 27th after shooting two straight rounds of 81.
Brandon LaFountain improved his score by 21 strokes on day two and helped lift the Braves up the team leaderboard. He finished at 63-over.
Trystin Zaste was 68th and also improved by 21 strokes on day two to bouy the Braves into the top 10 in team scoring.
Russ Parisien and Seth Azure also competed for the Braves in the tournament.
Gillis said the team fell short of its goal going into the event.
“Of course we played to try and win the title, but realistically our goal was sixth place,” Gillis said. “We didn’t shoot horrible but I knew we’d have to shoot (a team score of) 310 or 320.”
The Braves shot a 343 on day one but followed that up with a 327 on day two.
The coach has emphasized a team effort all year and again pointed out the efforts of LaFountain, Zaste and Parisien for getting it done not only at state, but all year long.
“Jackson and Seth will get the notiriety, but those other guys never get enough credit,” Chris said. “Without Trystin, Brandon and Russ, we’re not even at the state tournament.”
Davis and Seth qualified for the state tournament as individuals by virture of a top 10 finish in the WDA Regional Tournament. The two sophomores have led the team all year and both won regular season events along with all-region honors.
The 2015 season was historic because for the first time in school history, the Braves qualified for state as a team. With only one senior on this year’s squad, Chris said the team has already laid out its target for next year.
“We know what we have to do this summer and it depends on how hard the guys hit it,” Chris said. “Hopefully, we can capture the WDA title next year and get into the top three at state as a team. That’s our goal.”