The Prescott Cardinals won the western Wisconsin sectionals for the fourth year in a row on Monday, and they will advance to the State Tournament in Madison as a team.

The round at Clifton Highlands wasn’t particularly close as Prescott won by a comfortable 23 strokes over second place Hayward. Junior Gabbi Matzek and freshman Ava Salay led the team in score tying for sixth place, but all five of Prescott’s golfers finished in the top 13.

The state tournament takes place on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Each team will play two rounds, one per day. Each round will have a team score, and those scores are tallied to determine the winner.

The Cardinals are hoping that when they tally all those scores from all the best programs in the state, they will once again be state champions.

Although the Cardinals’ home course is Clifton Highlands, Head Coach Chad Salay said that they move their last week of practice over to Troy Burne Golf Course because it more closely mimics University Ridge Golf Course in Madison.

“Clifton Highlands is super tight, the greens are a little bit smaller, whereas Troy Burne has bigger greens and wider fairways. It’s really an awesome prep course for University Ridge, so we always flip our practice over there for a week before state,” Salay said.

Part of this need for practice at an alternate site is legislated by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association who runs the state tournament.

“We have an official practice run on Sunday, but we will most likely head down there Friday or Saturday and do some practice at the facility. Not on the course, it’s against the rules for teams to practice on the course early, so we’ll work on the driving range and putting green, and then our official is on Sunday,” Salay said.

Cardinal golfer Jeanne Rohl, one of three juniors on the team, said they’ve all played there before, and they’re fully prepared to be there.

“We play a regular invite there, so we’ve all seen it, and I feel like everybody kind of played solid there. We even kind of showed up some of the D1 teams, so I think everybody is excited to go back. I know I am,” Rohl said.

For the freshmen like Layla Salay, it’ll be their first time ever playing at this level.

“I’m really nervous,” Layla Salay said. “But it's just another round, you can't overthink it.”

The youth of this year’s Prescott team didn’t hamper their production as they swept every meet they played this year. Coach Salay said that it isn’t the golf that will be tough for the new girls as they compete at the state level, it’s the people.

“The unique thing about the freshmen girls is that they’ve been playing since they were 7-years-old. They honestly have more golf experience than any of the girls on the team, but they’ve never had crowds watching them,” Salay said. “When you get to that venue and there’s 40 people on the first tee and 100-200 on the last green, it’s a different feel. So, one thing that we work on is kind of putting the blinders on, like you’re not seeing the extra things going on around you. It's just you and the next shot, that should be the whole focus.”

Ellsworth

The Ellsworth Panthers finished third in regional competition at Pheasant Hills Golf Course in Hammond, beating rival Somerset to advance to sectionals last Thursday.

The Panthers had just lost to the same Somerset team on the same course just days earlier during the final round of conference play, so needless to say, they were not the favorite to win, said Addy Huppert.

“The tension was very high. Somerset has beat us multiple times before, and they have a really good number one player. So, we all needed to be on our A-game,” Huppert said. “When we made it, it was very shocking to me. We honestly weren’t expecting that.”

The sectional round, which was held at Clifton Highlands Golf Course on Monday, determined who goes to the state competition in Madison next week. In sectionals, only the top two teams and the top three remaining individual performers make it to state.

Ellsworth finished right in the middle at Clifton Highlands, taking fifth out of nine and beating some very good schools. Head Coach Carson Huppert said that even though they didn’t make it to state, he sees a very young team making big strides and knows that their program has a very bright future.

“Next year looks good. We have one freshman, three sophomores and one junior, and all the girls really like golf. They're going to keep playing and keep working,” Huppert said. “Just coming here and gaining that experience competing is good for us.”

Just because the team didn’t make it didn’t stop Lexi Marks from becoming just the sixth girl in school history to advance to the state championship for golf. Overall, Marks turned in a top four score at sectionals, beating out all but three of 54 of the best varsity golfers in western Wisconsin.

“I had some pretty good iron shots, and I drained a couple birdies, but I also made a couple mistakes that I easily could’ve fixed,” Marks said. “It’s crazy. It feels good, I’m excited. I just hope I can do well at state and put up a good score.”