Ronan, Polson golf teams start divisionals Thursday

Technically, it all starts today.

The Ronan and Polson golf teams will play host to teams from around the region as the divisional golf tourney gets underway in Polson today, and based on action this past week, there should be some good match ups.

Coming into today's tourney, the Polson girls are fresh off two separate victories over the Whitefish girls in just the past week, while the Ronan boys, led by Josh Grenier and William Foust, have been cleaning up as well. The Polson boys and Ronan girls teams have also done well at the Bigfork and Whitefish invites, which featured some of the best golf action this year.

At Eagle Bend golf course last week in Bigfork, Polson's Jenn Orchard and Kristine Samsel tied each other and bested all others with an 82, beating out Whitefish ace Maresa Jenson by three strokes. Sami Beaver and Whitney Pitts finished sixth and eighth, respectively, and along with Stephanie Rowold, helped the girls take first place over Whitefish by 11 strokes.

The Ronan boys did almost as well, finishing fourth (and missing second place by only nine strokes), led by Grenier and Foust. Grenier finished second with a 71 and Foust finished fourth with a 74. The Polson boys finished sixth and the Ronan girls did not have enough players to field a complete team, although Leslie Morigeau, Brooke Wagner and Lindsey Cornelius competed.

This week at Whitefish saw more of the same, with Samsel, Orchard, Rowold and Beaver all finishing in the top 10, and along with Pitts, taking another first place team finish and beating Whitefish by eight strokes.

On the boys side, Grenier finished second with a strong 72, leading the team to a fifth place finish, while the Polson boys, paced by Shawn Medland, finished eighth out of 15 teams.

For the Ronan boys, Foust shot an 81, followed by Josh McGreevey with an 89, Chris Starkel with a 90, and Aaron Acosta to round out the team's good performance. For the girls, Shayla Couture led the team with a 95, while Jordan Strozzi, Wagner, Cornelius and Morigeau chipped in to help the team finish seventh.

For the Polson boys, Jason Newton finished closely behind Medland with an 87, along with Medland's brother Harry, and Kellan Mills and Chris Hanson also did well.

All of this is all nice and good, but it's a fresh slate at today's divisional tourney, which will determine who qualifies for state. In an interesting twist, Polson is hosting today's tourney, while Whitefish will host state next week.

And if this past week's performance is any indication, it's going to be a whopper of a contest, with Samsel, Orchard, Grenier and Foust vying for top spots. Interestingly enough, all four started off poorly in Bigfork last week, but managed to regroup and focus on the task at hand.

"I started off with a pretty solid double bogey (on the first hole)," Grenier said of his performance in Bigfork. "I was like, 'This is over.' At that point, I just wanted to break 80."

And break it he did, turning in a stellar 71, including an eagle on the eighth hole. The Polson girls had similar experiences.

"The front nine was really bad. I tripled (bogeyed) the first hole," Orchard said. "I thought 'Well, this is going to be a long day.'"

"I missed two 5-foot birdies on the front nine," Samsel said. "But other than that, it went pretty well."

Informal discussions with Whitefish, Ronan and Polson golfers during last Thursday's invite indicate that all of them are almost evenly split on whether or not playing in Polson will help the Ronan and Polson teams, and whether Whitefish will have an advantage at home for state.

Some of the golfers said it gives them an advantage while others said you still have to have your best game, regardless of which course you're on.

"At this point you almost have to worry about getting too psyched up. But the girls team, especially, has been there," Polson head coach Bill Owen said. "Whether or not they bring their 'A' game is the big question. You have to prepare yourself, but really, this is just another tournament."

Grenier, Foust and the rest of the Ronan and Polson boys teams face the biggest challenge yet — a Whitefish line-up that most local coaches consider one of the best ever in the state, Class A or otherwise. Any one and all five of them have the potential to break 70 on any given day, and they've been undefeated all year against a host of AA schools.

(To give you an idea of the competition the Polson and Ronan boys will face, one Whitefish golfer bogeyed his first six holes and three-putted a 4-foot putt last Thursday — and still shot a 79, better than 90 percent of the field.)

The shotgun start at the Polson golf course is at 9 a.m. today (Thursday).