Sports

Two BHS golfers close season at state

By Matthew Semisch

06/03/2014

Following a 2014 golf season in which two Bottineau High student-athletes qualified for the NDHSAA Class B state tournament, BHS golf coach Joe Bender feels good about his program’s future.

One boy and one girl from Bottineau competed at the geographically separate state meets in Fargo and Carrington, respectively.

Both of them, junior Luke Amsbaugh and senior Bailey Neubauer, finished in the top 40  of their respective fields.

Amsbaugh finished 36th out of the 124 state qualifiers on the boys’ side that made their way to Fargo. On the girls’, Neubauer finished 38th out of the 121 qualifiers that competed in Carrington.

“Her first day out there was a tough one,” Bender said of Neubauer, who will attend the University of North Dakota this fall. “The greens were playing really fast, and she had a tough time adjusting.

“Her drive was slicing a little bit, too, so she was having to recover more than you’d like, but she played a lot better on the second day, drove the ball beautifully and just did really well.

“She had only golfed in three or four meets last year as she was in both golf and track, so this year she did just golf and was a lot more committed, and I think it showed in her results. She’d developed a really beautiful swing and just played so well.”

Amsbaugh also improved on his second day of the boys’ competition in Fargo.

“Luke had a difficult first day, a lot like Bailey,” Bender said, “But he had a much, much better second day.

“Coming out of state, with him being only a junior, I think he’ll only improve over the summer and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do for us next year.”

Bottineau loses two players from this year’s teams, Neubauer and Garrett Pollman, to graduation.