4th of July Tournament Moore edges Johnston in playoff

By EVAN MCCULLERS

The Daily Inter Lake

WHITEFISH ­— The 81st Annual Whitefish Lake Golf Club’s 4th of July Tournament turned into a battle of the state’s two biggest prep stars.

And this time, unlike the past two years at the MHSA state golf tournament, Billings’ Joey Moore got the best of Libby’s Ryggs Johnston.

Beginning with an eagle on No. 6, Moore surged to the turn and through the back nine for a 5-under-par 66 on Saturday at the South Course, erasing Johnston’s three-stroke lead to begin the day.

The two prep standouts matched each other stroke for stroke through the final three holes to send the tournament to a sudden death playoff, and Moore won the playoff hole after Johnston hit his tee shot out of bounds to the left.

“Going into the day, I was just trying to be really aggressive, go for every pin,” Moore said.

“The course is in great shape. Both sides, it was really fun. Best atmosphere I’ve ever played in, not going to lie.”

Hailey Hoagland posted her third solid round in as many days, firing a 2-under 70 to run away from the field for the women’s championship.

The Butte native, who now plays for the Montana women’s team, was tied for second after the first round but fired the best women’s score the final two days and pulled away for an eight-stroke win.

“It’s very humbling,” Hoagland said.

“Some of the best, if not the best, female golfers in the state were here, so to be able to win a tournament like this is a pretty great accomplishment.

“I played with a great group today, and it was a great field of competition for this tournament. It’s always fun getting all of us college players back together for a tournament.”

Both winners are relatively new to the tournament. Moore finished on top in his first appearance, and Hoagland, who finished in a tie for second with Maggie Crippen in 2016, was playing for just the second time.

Crippen was second again this year, edging out fellow Missoula native Kylie Esh by two strokes.

Johnston had to settle for another top-5 finish, his third in as many years.

He posted a 2-under 69 on Saturday to become the only player in the tournament to shoot in the 60s all three days, but it wasn’t enough to fend off a charging Moore on the back nine.

Johnston was 4-under through six holes to begin the day, building what seemed at the time to be an insurmountable seven-stroke lead.

Just as the tournament seemed to be slipping away from Moore, he began playing his best golf of the week.

He eagled the par-5 6th and followed it with birdies on Nos. 7 and 8 to close the gap, but it wasn’t until the middle of the back nine when the reigning Class AA state champion felt he was truly back in the mix.

“Probably on 13, when I made about a 12-footer,” Moore said. “He made bogey. I made par. I was, I think, two back at that point. I was like, ‘OK, if I make a couple of birdies coming in, I can have a chance.’ Made two more birdies, and the rest is history.”

Johnston was in position to take charge on No. 17 with a five-foot par putt, but he couldn’t get it to fall. Moore’s 20-foot par putt on the par-4 17th lipped out.

“I just got a little tired at the end,” Johnston said. “I played pretty good for 10 holes and then just got tired. Couldn’t really hit a ball.”

Both players tapped in for bogey and also bogeyed No. 18 to force a playoff.

The 16-year-old Johnston went out of bounds to the left off the tee. Moore followed him left but kept his ball in bounds.

A few moments later, Moore tapped in a par putt from two feet to win the first playoff in the 4th of July Tournament since 2011 and seal the title in his inaugural appearance.

“Kind of relieved,” Moore said. “It’s stressful. I was tired. We even said to each other on hole 17 that we didn’t have much left.

“You know that (Johnston) doesn’t make many mistakes. He hits it straight. He hits it pretty long. When he gets hot with the putter, everything’s rolling in. It’s tough to compete with, but sometimes you’ve just got to put pressure on somebody and it helps. He’s amazing.”

The win gave the 17-year-old Moore, who will play at San Diego State after his senior year, a taste of revenge for the past two years, when Johnston has claimed the all-class state golf title and shattered state records in the process.

Moore refused to wilt under the beating sun and pressure, and he had a crystal trophy at the end of the day to show for his efforts.

“Joey played really good,” Johnston said. “Started out a little rough, but then he got it going, and he just didn’t stop the whole day.”

4th of July Tournament

Saturday’s Final Results

Whitefish Lake Golf Club

Men

Championship Flight

1 Joey Moore 66-70-66--202

1 Ryggs Johnston 67-66-69--202

3 Cory Mehl 70-73-66--209

4 Conor Rooney 69-70-75--214

T5 Sean Benson 74-70-71--215

T5 Garrett Woodin 71-73-71--215

T7 Logan Lindholm 66-75-76--217

T7 Robb Bergeson 73-75-69--217

T9 Shawn Tucker 71-75-72--218

T9 Kyle Mossfeldt 75-71-72--218

T11 Brittain Walton 74-74-71--219

T11 Jim Coleman 76-69-74--219

T11 Brett Patton 76-71-72--219

T14 Brad Grattan 68-73-82--223

T14 Arthur Doorn 75-74-74--223

T14 Mark Mance 70-78-75--223

T14 Andrew Medley 77-76-70--223

T14 Sam Krause 78-73-72--223

T14 Chris Lien 77-77-69--223

T20 Bob Conrad 73-73-78--224

T20 Alexander Smith 73-83-68--224

22 Ryan Swagar 77-78-72--227

T23 RJ Patterson 77-82-70--229

T23 Ron Ramsbacher 74-77-78--229

T25 Mark Dolven 72-78-81--231

T25 Will Ellegard 80-75-76--231

T25 Adam Lee 75-79-77--231

28 Ben Berg 78-77-77--232

T29 Bob Hasquet 76-80-78--234

T29 Justin Miller 77-75-82--234

T29 Payton Stott 80-74-80--234

T29 Bill Dunn 71-81-82--234

T33 Ross Bartell 79-77-81--237

T33 Austin Walter 81-76-80--237

T35 Cooper Donahue 81-80-78--239

T35 Dane Martinson 83-82-74--239

T35 Joe Wagner 79-79-81--239

T35 Bucky Crippen 75-80-84--239

T39 Joel Mallams 81-79-83--243

T39 Scott Larson 78-85-80--243

41 Rick Reimers 81-81-83--245

First Flight

1 Marty Mehl 73-72-73--218

2 Kevin Sieben 71-73-76--220

3 Bennett MacIntyre 76-72-73--221

4 Parker Heller 70-77-81--228

5 David Kenyon 78-77-74--229

T6 Jack Johnston 78-78-74--230

T6 Sean Ramsbacher 73-79-78--230

T6 Byron Olson 78-78-74--230

T6 Scott Merriam 77-75-78--230

T10 Joseph Potkonjak 77-81-74--232

T10 Mat Stevenson 78-74-80--232

T12 Joe Johnston 77-83-73--233

T12 John Moscrip 87-74-72--233

T14 Brian Brown 78-79-77--234

T14 Roger Thorn 77-80-77--234

16 Cayde Brown 80-78-78--236

17 Doug Honkamp 77-78-82--237

T18 Mark Mossfeldt 84-77-78--239

T18 Curtis Blake 79-80-80--239

T18 Akku Acharya 77-83-79--239

T21 Blake Hasquet 78-86-76--240

T21 Tyler Schiff 80-81-79--240

23 Lyndsay Woolley 83-81-78--242

24 Christian Clark 82-82-80--244

25 Jason Winkler 81-83-82--246

T26 Brady Cady 82-85-81--248

T26 Walt Barnes 82-82-84--248

28 Simon Lee 81-88-83--252

Second Flight

1 Kyle Taylor 75-81-76--232

2 Michael DeGrazier 83-78-71--232

3 Brad Cox 72-85-77--234

4 Spencer Hughes 79-81-75--235

5 Jamey Perlinski 76-82-81--239

T6 Loy Sullivan 79-78-83--240

T6 Chris Geddes 83-78-79--240

T6 Jon Nau 82-80-78--240

T6 Scott Friggle 78-84-78--240

10 Case Stockton 87-80-77--244

11 Kyle Sheppard 86-80-79--245

T12 Russ DeVore 79-82-85--246

T12 Baker Montgomery 83-77-86--246

14 Colin Curtis 89-78-80--247

T15 Brandann Rohrer 80-80-89--249

T15 David Knight 80-86-83--249

T15 Tim Kiley 84-83-82--249

18 Dan Knechtal 83-86-81--250

T19 Steve Williamson 79-84-88--251

T19 Matthew Longfield 86-83-82--251

21 Zach Osborne 87-83-82--252

T22 Duke Moscrip 87-83-88--258

T22 Gary Newlin 81-93-84--258

T24 Nick Hustwaite 84-81-96--261

T24 Tobin Woldtvedt 90-82-89--261

26 Matt Hedstrom 84-91-89--264

27 Cam Geddes 87-83-96--266

28 Eric Galcher 91-91-87--269

29 Mack DuVall 87-86-101--274

Third Flight

1 Raymond Pitman 82-77-77--236

T2 Josh Joseph 77-82-78--237

T2 Micheal Burney 77-80-80--237

4 Gary Wagner 78-81-79--238

T5 Dow Powell 81-76-82--239

T5 Kevin Ryan 76-81-82--239

T7 Billy Wagner 83-78-79--240

T7 Kevin Woodin 77-85-78--240

9 Jeff Pascoe 77-81-83--241

10 Joe Tourtelot 80-88-79--247

T11 Barney Shynkanuk 83-86-82--251

T11 Ryan Stewart 84-84-83--251

13 Bryan Hall 89-87-76--252

T14 Brandon Hanson 83-91-80--254

T14 Jay Medley 80-86-88--254

16 Darryl Hustwaite 78-86-91--255

17 Baker Stockton 86-87-89--262

18 John Adams 86-88-90--264

19 Jeff Norlin 93-89-86--268

20 DJ O’Neal 93-91-89--273

Fourth Flight

1 Jeff Fairlee 77-83-79--239

2 John Velk 80-83-84--247

3 Luke Bauernfeind 80-94-84--258

4 Dave Whisenand 92-83-86--261

5 Theodore Dann 83-89-91--263

6 Thom Peck 86-89-89--264

7 Jay Jovanovich 92-88-85--265

8 Art Williams 81-88-97--266

9 Mark Stella 93-94-88--275

10 Mike Wong 90-96-90--276

11 Patrick Montalban 95-89-100--284

12 Austin Smith 88-98-99--285

13 Chrsitian Kaempfer 89-90-108--287

14 Jim Langley 101-94-94--289

15 David Abbott 96-99-100--295

16 Rob Gleason 108-94-108--310

Women

Championship Flight

1 Hailey Hoagland 71-72-70--213

2 Maggie Crippen 68-78-75--221

3 Kylie Esh 71-75-77--223

4 Cathie Tronson 74-75-75--224

5 Coral Schulz 73-75-78--226

6 Anna DeMars 76-75-79--230

7 Teigan Avery 76-78-77--231

8 Kyla Clancy 77-75-83--235

9 Shealyn Hafer 80-83-77--240

10 Carly McNaughton 76-85-80--241

11 Morgan O’Neil 76-89-78--243

12 Sadie Crippen 83-82-81--246

13 Kasia Kazmierczyk 79-85-85--249

First Flight

1 Marcy Holt 74-80-82--236

2 Katherine Wills 81-77-79--237

3 Nikki Norlin 86-81-76--243

T4 Marianne Barker 81-87-77--245

T4 Emily Garden 83-83-79--245

T4 Karen Jacobson 81-79-85--245

7 Kathy Dodd 82-82-85--249

8 Bobbie Lacklen 81-84-85--250

T9 Ginny Larence 80-86-87--253

T9 Marianne Nelson 87-82-84--253

11 Jody Fee 82-86-87--255

Second Flight

1 Jeanette Cheney 83-83-86--252

2 Barb Lauzon 85-91-87--263

3 Kelly Coleman 83-96-85--264

4 Marcia Reimers 92-90-85--267

5 Mary Armstrong 96-85-87--268

6 Stacy Denning 95-91-89--275

7 Cheryl Walter 101-87-89--277

8 Darcy Milller 99-89-94--282

9 Stephanie Joseph 86-93-104--283

10 Ruth Fenn 93-93-100--286

11 Patsy Casteel 93-99-97--289

12 Linda Ray 106-97-98--301

Senior

Championship Flight

1 Carroll Lilly 81-70-70--221

2 Gary Holt 76-74-75--225

3 Peter Benson 77-75-77--229

4 Dave Streeter 78-77-77--232

5 Frank Sutton 78-80-76--234

6 Dan Konen 84-78-78--240

7 Larry Schwenke 81-83-79--243

8 Ian Fraser 86-80-81--247

T9 Thomas Shea 90-85-79--254

T9 Dan Lieberg 87-89-78--254

111 Robert Sandman 87-90-89--266

First Flight

1 Rod Brady 77-78-79--234

2 Don Foulkes 81-77-80--238

3 John Brubaker 84-79-83--246

T4 Doug Oleson 83-86-80--249

T4 Dan Wagner 87-77-85--249

6 Mike Bailey 79-84-87--250

7 Dann Rohrer 84-86-85--255

8 Brian Gore 94-86-84--264

T9 Stan Krause 89-91-90--270

T9 John Rottger 87-89-94--270

Second Flight

1 Carl “Tom” Long 87-88-78--253

2 Barry Fenn 87-87-84--258

3 Brent Appelgren 88-89-85--262

4 Bruce Hogan 92-90-84--266

5 Brian Cripe 92-92-85--269

6 Allen Allred 90-88-92--270

7 Ralph Hemp 88-90-93--271

8 Bob Slaven 90-90-92--272

9 Doug Schmoldt 95-92-93--280

10 Dean Diez 97-102-94--293

11 Rick Wheeler 97-103-98--298

12 Ted Hodges 105-100-94--299

13 Brian Geddes 107-90-108--305