Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Greg Mellis Bonduel High School golfers practice putting Wednesday on a crisp fall morning prior to the WIAA Division 2 regional at Golden Sands Golf Course in Cecil. Shown are, from left, Mariah Diemel, Jessie LaBerge and (facing away) Danielle Lautenbach.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Bonduel High School senior Danielle Lautenbach drives from the tee on the 17th hole at Golden Sands Golf Course in Cecil on Wednesday. Lautenbach finished her round with a team-best 113, as no Bonduel golfers qualified for WIAA sectional play.
Even a familiar course could not help the Bonduel High School girls golf team advance beyond Wednesday’s WIAA Division 2 regional at Golden Sands Golf Course in Cecil.
The lone senior for the Bears, Danielle Lautenbach, shot a team-best 113 Wednesday, as the Bears finished eighth, with a score of 488, out of the nine teams competing.
Lautenbach was nine strokes behind the final individual qualifier for sectionals.
“I know she’s not happy with how she shot, but I know she put everything into it, Bonduel head coach Taylor McAdams said. “She’s going to go back and say, “if I did this and this and this, things could have been better, or if I practiced over the summer, things could have been better.’
“I think she had a good season. She placed a couple times in the meets we had. I think she did about as well as she could have done for the year, so she should be proud of that.”
Fox Valley Lutheran had the three lowest scores on the day, a 78 from Erika Priebe, an 80 from Trystin Kluess and an 85 from Megan Glaeser.
For Bonduel, behind Lautenbach, Allissa Tilleson shot a 122, Mariah Diemel added a 125 and Jessie LaBerge finished her season with a 128.
“We definitely had higher expectations,” McAdams said. “We know we don’t shoot the lowest of scores, but being our home course, we thought we could at least play well for ourselves.”
Hole 10 at Golden Sands proved to be a challenge for many golfers. Nine girls had double-digit scores on the par-4 hole.
Even the host team struggled to avoid the water on that particular hole. Bonduel’s golfers averaged an 11 on the hole.
“It should be an easy 100-yard shot to the fairway and 100-yard shot to the green. It just didn’t happen,” McAdams said. “It does boost your confidence a little going into a hole like that knowing that I’ve done this before, I can hit it, and I’ve seen it happen, and I know it can happen.
“Golf is a mental game, so just seeing that, you know that a lot better. So I think it helped, but not all of our girls obviously took advantage of it.”
Although this isn’t the way Bonduel had hoped for its season to end, things are looking up for the program.
Expectations are already high for next season.
“The hope is that things are really going to change come next year,” McAdams said.
WIAA Division 2 Bonduel Regional
Sept. 30
Golden Sands Golf Course
Team scores: Fox Valley Lutheran, 336; Freedom 397; Marinette, 405; Oconto Falls 430; Wrightstown, 434; Oconto, 438; Luxemburg-Casco, 458; Bonduel, 488; Little Chute, 490.
Top individuals: Erika Priebe, Fox Valley Lutheran, 78; Trystin Kluess, Fox Valley Lutheran, 80; Megan Glaeser, Fox Valley Lutheran, 85; Lori Meyer, Freedom, 86; Kayla Thielen, Marinette, 88.