Ryne Scholl/Courtesy photo
The Summit High School golf team continues to find ways to improve upon its performance from the week before.
On Monday, Aug. 29, the Tigers competed at the Tiara Rado Golf Course in Grand Junction, and on Tuesday, Aug. 30, the team traveled to Gypsum to compete at the Gypsum Creek Golf Course.
In Grand Junction, Summit sent five boys to the 13-team tournament looking to finish in the upper half of the field.
Sophomore Tyler Short had the best score for Summit at the Tiara Rado Golf Course, shooting an 82 to barely beat out senior teammate Rece Greff who shot a score of 83.
Behind Greff was sophomore Jace Melby, who hasn’t shot over 90 at all since the start of the season. Melby remained a consistent player for the team in Grand Junction. He shot 88 to be the Tigers’ third-best linksman on the day.
Sophomore Evan Wischmeyer also had a notable performance in Grand Junction, shooting a personal best score of 92.
“It was tough conditions, so it was great to see Evan shoot his personal best,” head coach Ryne Scholl said. “That was with a 10 on his second-to-last hole, which was a plus six, so he was right there to shoot his personal best by a lot more.”
Rounding out the performances for the Tigers was junior Wyatt Willis who shot 93.
Summit ended up with a score of 253 to place in the upper half of the 13-team field. Summit’s sixth-place finish was the fourth best among the 4A teams, with Grand Junction taking first with a score of 210, Eagle Valley placing fourth and Battle Mountain finishing in fifth.
The following morning the same group of Tigers — minus Willis, who was out due to an illness — took to the Gypsum Creek Golf Course for Eagle Valley’s golf tournament.
Unlike the day before, the Tigers were a little less consistent, with the scores spread out across the team’s four athletes.
Short once again led the Tigers, swinging his way to a personal-best score of 75 for 3 over par.
The performance was good enough for Short to finish tied for second in the individual rankings.
“For Tyler, it was quite the round. Finishing tied for second was quite the accomplishment,” Scholl said. “It’s been a few years since we’ve had a player finish that high for the team. It was great, and Tyler is just a sophomore. It was the day before his birthday, so it was a nice birthday present to him.”
What stood out to Scholl the most about Short’s round at Gypsum Creek was that he had the mental fortitude to shoot 2 under par on the last five holes after realizing he wasn’t going to record a score under 72.
Following Short was Greff with a score of 89 to be the Tigers’ second-best shooter on the day. Melby shot 94, and Wischmeyer shot 111.
Despite the team not having the same caliber of performances as the day before, the scoring by Short helped the team to notch its second sixth-place finish of the week with a total of 258 points.
The Tigers finished sixth out of 12 teams despite not having a fifth athlete to help pad its score and the absence of the team’s usual mainstay, Max Kunzek.
“It’s exciting to see the team do that without all the top players,” Scholl said. “For them to get a top finish counting three out of four scores and not having those extra ones to throw away is a testament to the growth of the program, the strength of the program.”
The Tigers will return to the links for their third tournament of the week on Friday, Sept. 2 when the team travels to Dos Rios Golf Course in Gunnison. The tournament is scheduled to start at 10 am