OFF THE TEE - Tawas Area's Adam Billinghurst smashes a shot off the tee during last week's season opening meet at Red Hawk Golf Club.
EAST TAWAS - The top four teams in the North Star League are expected to make for quite the log jam this season. That proved to be the case in the first conference meet on Wednesday, at Red Hawk Golf Club. Hillman won the event with a nine hole score of 182, Alcona was second with a 185, Tawas Area was third with a 191 and Oscoda was fourth with a 192.
Charlton Heston Academy was also fifth with a 234, AuGres was sixth at 234 and Rogers City was seventh with a 267.
The Braves were led by Jakob Kaderle in third with a score of 45, Zack Miller and Vance Spencer tied for ninth with twin scores of 48, Adam Billinghurst and Ethan Daniels were both 14th with scores of 50 and Parker Eling was 29th with a 60.
"I really liked what I saw performance wise as well as the numbers," Tawas head coach Paul Vainer said. "Certainly, there is a lot of work we can do to get better, especially in the short game because that isn't easily simulated inside. This week this team showed me that we have the potential to be a real competitor this year.
"This time last year I thought there would be next to no chance we would be able to put up scores like this by the end of the year, let alone at this point of the year. It's a real testament to the kids on this team and how much work they put in this past offseason."
For Oscoda, Colton Hasty was fourth with a 46, Jack Poland was ninth with a 48, Cole Gerow and Alex Clarke were tied for 12th with twin scores of 49, Seth Gutierrez was 18th with a round of 51 and Shane Ellis was 21st by carding a 54.
"It was a pretty disappointing day for us score wise, but the nice part is we kept within arm's reach of everyone for the cumulative score for the league title," Oscoda head coach Dean Caldwell said.
As for AuGres, Brennan Smolen was 20th with a 52, Ben Schnettler was 21st at 54, Charlie Schnettler had a round of 59 to come in 28th, Jacob Blackmon was 36th after he had a 69, Carson Ososki hit a 74 and was 40th and Levi Jones was 43rd on a tally of 84.
This was the Wolverines' first match since the rebirth of the program.
"They enjoyed the experience and although we didn't have the greatest outing score wise, we learned a lot about how the matches work," AuGres head coach Lee Richards said. "We're looking forward to (future matches)."
Tawas and Oscoda were both at Maple Leaf Golf Club on Friday for the Pinconning Invitational. Oscoda was seventh with an 18-hole team score of 342 while Tawas was ninth with a 356.
Ellis led the Owls with an 81, Poland had an 83, Gerow added an 84 and Hasty shot a 94.
"This was our second best 18-hole tournament score since restarting the program three years ago and is a great sign going forward," Caldwell said.
For the Braves, Daniels led them with a ninth place finish and round of 79. Kaderle was 34th by getting an 88; Spencer was 45th at 92; Billinghurst was 51st after hitting a 97; Gunner Selman hit a 100 to come in 54th; and Miller was 59th with a 103.
Tawas, Oscoda and AuGres compete at Fairview today (Wednesday) for the second NSL meet and they'll head up to Lost Lake Woods in Lincoln for another league meet. Tawas also hosts its own invite on Friday and Saturday at Red Hawk Golf Club on the first day and Huron Breeze on day two.