The Spring Valley Cardinals played their fourth conference match of the season at Glen Hills Golf Course in Glenwood City on Thursday, taking fourth place.

The weather was uncooperative to say the least during this one, turning what players said is typically one of the easier courses into a challenge to be overcome. The upshot is, that’s exactly what happened as the Cardinals posted their best scores of the season in the midst of the worst conditions they’ve played in thus far.

Sam Steinmeyer’s 47 and Mara Ducklow’s 48 paced the team, but Mason Clare’s 52 and Maxx Wittmer’s 55 weren’t far behind.

Head Coach Tyler Anderson is impressed by this, especially considering the conditions.

“This is definitely the worst weather we've had so far for a match this year. The scores aren't fully in right now, but taking a look at it, it's shaping up to be among our best performances as well,” Anderson said. “We've got four golfers who are realistically going to be right around 50 or less today, which is pretty good.”

The wind and the cold definitely had an effect, especially on their top shooters’ overall line. Given the way they were playing, on a better day those scores would likely have been even better for the Cardinals.

“Mara had a 48 today, and she was pretty surprised by it. She had two triples and two doubles, so she could very easily have been in the low 40’s,” Anderson said. “I think when she puts everything together, she'll be probably pretty consistently in the mid-40s.”

Coach Anderson says they’re going to be working on their short game in the coming weeks ahead of the conference championship as that’s typically the easiest way to shave strokes off player’s games.

“We’re just going to keep practicing. We've improved every single match so far even with the conditions as bad as they are tonight, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do around the greens,” Anderson said. “Inside 80 yards or even inside 50 yards is where your strokes add up in a hurry, whether it's chipping or putting. They're capable. They show it during practice. It's just a matter of carrying it over.”

Ducklow, who has been one of the Cardinals’ most consistent performers since joining the team in her sophomore year, says she’s going to be working these midrange shots as well, especially the bunker shots that gave her a bit of trouble in Thursday’s round.

“I struggle on the sand a lot. It took me like two or three shots to get it out twice, so I think if I can get out of there one shot, I could cut down five strokes on my score,” Ducklow said. “I think if I can get a little more confidence in my swing I’ll be better too. When I golf on myself, I can get a nice swing on it and hit it a good distance, but once I get to a match, I kind of think about too much. Right now I’d say chipping is probably my most strongest suit.”

An anchor for the Cardinals’ shooting from the #2 spot, Ducklow plays primarily against boys in the conference and carries herself well while doing it. She credits her skill and pursuit of the sport at the varsity level to the experience she gained playing with her dad and brother starting from the time she was in early grade school.

Looking ahead, the Cardinals will play two to three rounds a week until the conference championship which will be held less than a month from now in Glenwood City on May 11-12. From there, Spring Valley will head to regionals at Pheasant Hills Golf Course near Hammond for the chance to move on to sectionals.

On deck for this week, the Cardinals will play a conference meet on Tuesday at Valley Golf Course in Mondovi at 4:30 p.m., then they travel to the Whitetail Invitational on Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Colfax and they finish their week on Friday at Rolling Greens Golf Course in Durand with a 4:30 tee time.

River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats played a Big Rivers Conference round of golf at Troy Burne Golf Club on Monday taking fourth.

Coming off their first victory of the season at Lake Hallie Golf Course last Monday, the Wildcats continued BRC play this Monday at Troy Burne where they finished with a team score of 159, just two strokes back of New Richmond, five back from Hudson and nine off the first-place spot taken by Eau Claire Memorial’s 150.

Troy Burne is already a difficult course, but the conditions were not great to start the round, which made it even more difficult as rain and strong winds harassed players. The weather cleared up somewhat as the round went on, but the wind remained a factor throughout.

After a rough start, the Wildcats’ top shooter Ryan Swanson par’d the rest of the round, finishing +3 on the day. Similarly for #2 player Will Benedict, after starting the first two holes at +3, he played more up to his normal caliber and finished just two strokes behind Swanson. River Falls’ top player on the day was Connor O’Malley playing out of the 3-hole who shot a 36 on the round, taking third overall out of 40 players.

After coming out strong in week 1 at Lake Hallie, the Wildcats came into week 2 at the top of the conference. With this fourth-place finish, they sit in a tie for second with Hudson behind Eau Claire Memorial.

While it’s still early in the season, Head Coach Tim LaVold says the team is about where he thought they’d be after two weeks of play, although he wasn’t expecting that they would come out and take first place in week 1 of the year.

“I wasn’t surprised necessarily, I just wasn't sure if we could have four guys play as well as we did on the same day. I'm still waiting to see the consistency from a fourth player,” LaVold said. “If you're missing a guy, or a guy has an off day, you're not going to come in first. That's where I've talked about our depth, we're not real deep. Last week we were all on. Everybody played really well on the same day, and that’s the key. So, it’s fine. We don't need to play great every round right now, we need to play great in the postseason, but it’s good to see guys having good rounds this early.”

Coming up next for the Wildcats is another Big Rivers Conference meet on Thursday in Rice Lake, and then they travel to Lake Wissota Golf Course in Chippewa Falls on Monday. Tee times for both of those rounds is at 3:30 p.m.

Prescott

The Prescott Cardinals took 13^th out of 13 teams in the Saatzer Invitational at the Hastings Country Club on Thursday.

Coming fresh off their top 3 finish on Monday at Clifton Highlands in Prescott, the blustery weather added to the chill on Thursday morning in Hastings as the Cardinals played Minnesota teams from across the metro area.

Tyler Reiter’s 81 and Sam Vesperman’s 83 led the way for Prescott, which goes to show the difficulty of the course and the conditions. Reiter, for example, had shot 72 or under in their first three rounds of the season.

Head Coach Scott Hamilton said the Hastings course is a bit harder than what they’re used to at Clifton Highlands because it’s narrower and the greens are really fast, but he says the challenge is good for the guys.

“We were a little over par, a couple more than we’ve been used to but overall, it went pretty well,” Hamilton said. “Luke Kinneman, our #3 shot very well. He had a rough hole on 14, but other than that, he looked pretty good.”

In golf, it pays dividends to have a short memory, and that’s what Prescott did by putting those scores behind them. They headed to the Reedsburg Invitational near Wisconsin Dells the next day where they took fifth out of 24 teams.

Reiter once again paced the team in score playing out of the one spot with a 78 on the day. Although he was +6 for the round, he took fourth place for individual score out of 119 golfers. Luke Kinneman finished not far behind him with an 82 out of the 3-hole, finishing 17^th overall, and Vesperman’s 87 and Linderholm’s 92 rounded out the scoring for the Cardinals.

Coach Hamilton says the main thing he wants to see from the guys as the conference season moves forward is consistency.

“Working on putting and eliminating as many 3 putts as we can is important, as our early putting has been a little difficult at times for us,” Hamilton said. “We’re also learning how to take out the "big" hole, keep our scores to bogey's or better. Another focus is going to be on not letting one bad hole turn into three, which turns a good round into a frustrating one.”

Going forward, Hamilton says that they’d like to at least keep pace with where they are at in the conference and look to push Amery for the top spot at each meet. If the Cardinals can play more consistently and eliminate the blow up holes, he thinks they can make a push for the top spot.

Looking forward, Prescott will continue its conference season when they head to the Whitetail Invitational on Wednesday at 9 a.m. and then to Bloomer on Friday at 11 a.m.