Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

It was a hot day for golf today for the state tournaments across the state. Now, that’s certainly not unusual for Kansas at this time of year, but it was by far the hottest day these golfers had experienced this season. And some of them struggled. Ark City’s  Mike Osterthun was one who admitted that he was pretty exhausted from the heat — and last night was graduation.

Aquinas’ Joseph Winslow won 5A - -he’s a freshman. Last year in 5A, Kapaun’s Max Lazzo won as a freshman. Winslow was a stud, with a 68, four shots better than second and third. He got a little tired late in his round, but a backup at 17, where he waited about 10-15 minutes to tee off, actually helped him. Winslow said he’s leaving Wednesday for a junior PGA tournament in Florida.

Osterthun finished third and Kapaun’s David Auer was fourth, with a 73. I followed him briefly, walking with his dad, Joe (the Heights basketball coach) and his mom, Kay. It was hilarious at one point that Joe said golf is a tough sport for parents. You can’t cheer, yell instructions, and there’s no 30 second timeouts to take your player aside and give them a chance to cool down and get refocused. (by the way, I did clear this with Joe that it was a blog interview — he said it was fine.) I really thought it was a good point, though. The parents who follow the golfers are quiet, whispering if they actually do talk. (sidenote: I know I’m not the first person to ask this, but why can’t golfers deal with talking while they play? And why can’t fans yell when volleyball players serve?)

One of the golfers who caught my attention was Pittsburg’s Jon Nichols. The kid is a freshman and he shot a 33 on the front nine. Impressive (Osterthun  also shot a 33 on the front). But what caught my attention was his size — the kid is 6-3, 230 (or thereabouts) and he’s a lineman for Pittsburg. Hello. How many linemen do you see golfing — and golfing well?

Chatted with McPherson basketball coach Kurt Kinnamon today. Another one of my favorites because he always tells it like it is. If he’s mad, he tells you. If he’s happy, he tells you. And he’s gruff. I’ve definitely got a soft spot for the gruff coaches — like Carroll’s Don Racine, Joe Auer, Southeast’s Carl Taylor. At least I always know they’re honest. Anyway, Kinnamon called me Paula Creamer –I was definitely in the pink mode today — pink Vikings hat, pink shoes, pink adidas. Creamer loves pink, too. Hey, as many men as I’m surrounded every day of my life, sometimes I need to break out the girlie-girl stuff.

How about the two craziest hits by Osterthun and Auer — each one eagled No. 17 at McPherson’s Turkey Creek Golf Course by getting a bounce off the cart path and onto the green. That is crazy. And lucky. And both admitted such.

Kapaun (6th) and Carroll (10th) should have finished better today in 5A, but Kapaun at least knows that five of its top six return next year (two freshmen, two sophomores, one junior).

So anyone else get burnt while out on the golf course today? I saw some folks who looked like lobsters. Unfortunately, the spray sunscreen I used didn’t seem to work. My neck took a beating.

Did you all see anything good in golf today? Anyone going golfing tomorrow?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 8:26 p.m. and is filed under Golf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.