Johnston flirts with course record

WHITEFISH — By the time Ryggs Johnston completed his second round at the Whitefish Lake Golf Club’s 81st Annual 4th of July Tournament, he had only himself left to chase.

Johnston shot to the top of the leaderboard in the Men’s Championship Flight and came within a stroke of breaking his own course record with a 6-under-par 66 in Friday’s round on the North Course.

The 16-year-old Libby High School star, who set the North Course record on June 15, 2015, with a 7-under 65, leads Billings’ Joey Moore by three strokes heading into the third and final round of the tournament.

“Hit the ball pretty good,” Johnston said.

“Could have been better. I missed a few putts, but I made a few putts, too. It was a good round.”

Hailey Hoagland, a senior on the Montana women’s golf team, vaulted to the top of the Women’s Championship Flight leaderboard with a 1-over 72, the best score of the day among the women. She jumped ahead of Maggie Creppin, who entered Day 2 on top thanks to an opening-round 68, and leads the field by three strokes entering today’s play.

The big story of the day, however, was Johnston, who weaved through the long and challenging North Course with little issue.

He got off to a hot start, shooting 3-under through five holes, and closed his round strong by holing a 10-foot putt on the par-5 18th for his second consecutive birdie.

Johnston had just one bogey in the round, which came on No. 15, a par 3 playing at 206 yards from the championship tees.

“It was just kind of slow and steady,” Johnston said.

“I’m hitting my irons pretty good and just not getting in too much trouble.”

Unlike the first two rounds, the leaders of both championship flights will be grouped together today.

Johnston and Moore will be joined in the top men’s group by Whitefish native Conor Rooney and either Logan Lindholm or Brad Grattan, who are tied for fourth with a two-round total of 141.

Lindholm, a Kalispell native who in 2013 became the first golfer from Northwest Montana to win the Montana Mid-Amateur tournament, was tied with Moore for first after both carded a 66 on Thursday, but he slipped down the leaderboard with a 3-over 75 on Friday.

“Yesterday just was a great round,” Lindholm said.

“Everything went my way. Putts dropped, and got up and down from tough spots. I was pretty happy with it.

“The pins were a lot tougher today, and I didn’t putt very well. Other than that, not much different. Could have hit it a little closer, but basically played about the same. Just was lucky yesterday and unlucky today.”

On the women’s side, Hoagland will be joined by Crippen, Kylie Esh and Coral Schulz in the final group.

Schulz, a Whitefish native who now plays for Montana State, is six strokes off the lead entering the final round at her home club.

She has played in the tournament for six years with a career-best finish of fifth.

“Tomorrow, I’m just going to go in and have fun,” Schulz said. “This is such a fun tournament. There’s so many college players here, and it’s nice to have that competitive vibe, but also have that extremely fun vibe. I’m just going to go in and have fun and not worry about it. Whatever I end up, I end up.”

This is also far from Johnston’s first time in the tournament, and he will today look to finish the job after several close calls in the past, most recently a third-place finish in 2016.

“I should be in pretty good place,” Johnston said.

“Should be able to go put a low round up tomorrow and whatever happens, happens.

“I’ve come close a few times, so this is one I’d really love to win. It’s a pretty big tournament, and you want to win any tournament. That’s enough motivation.”

4th of July Tournament

Friday

At Whitefish Lake Golf Club

Stroke Play

Men

Championship

1 Ryggs Johnston 67-66--133

2 Joey Moore 66-70--136

3 Conor Rooney 69-70--139

T4 Brad Grattan 68-73--141

T4 Logan Lindholm 66-75--141

6 Cory Mehl 70-73--143

T7 Sean Benson 74-70--144

T7 Garrett Woodin 71-73--144

9 Jim Coleman 76-69--145

T10 Shawn Tucker 71-75--146

T10 Kyle Mossfeldt 75-71--146

T10 Bob Conrad 73-73--146

13 Brett Patton 76-71--147

T14 Mark Mance 70-78--148

T14 Robb Bergeson 73-75--148

T14 Brittain Walton 74-74--148

17 Arthur Doorn 75-74--149

18 Mark Dolven 72-78--150

T19 Ron Ramsbacher 74-77--151

T19 Sam Krause 78-73--151

T21 Justin Miller 77-75--152

T21 Bill Dunn 71-81--152

23 Andrew Medley 77-76--153

T24 Payton Stott 80-74--154

T24 Chris Lien 77-77--154

T24 Adam Lee 75-79--154

T27 Ben Berg 78-77--155

T27 Bucky Crippen 75-80--155

T27 Will Ellegard 80-75--155

T27 Ryan Swagar 77-78--155

T31 Bob Hasquet 76-80--156

T31 Ross Bartell 79-77--156

T31 Alexander Smith 73-83--156

34 Austin Walter 81-76--157

35 Joe Wagner 79-79--158

36 RJ Patterson 77-82--159

37 Joel Mallams 81-79--160

38 Cooper Donahue 81-80--161

39 Rick Reimers 81-81--162

40 Scott Larson 78-85--163

41 Dane Martinson 83-82--165

First Flight

1 Kevin Sieben 71-73--144

2 Marty Mehl 73-72--145

3 Parker Heller 70-77--147

4 Bennett MacIntyre 76-72--148

T5 Mat Stevenson 78-74--152

T5 Sean Ramsbacher 73-79--152

T5 Scott Merriam 77-75--152

T8 David Kenyon 78-77--155

T8 Doug Honkamp 77-78--155

T10 Jack Johnston 78-78--156

T10 Byron Olson 78-78--156

T12 Brian Brown 78-79--157

T12 Roger Thorn 77-80--157

T14 Joseph Potkonjak 77-81--158

T14 Cayde Brown 80-78--158

16 Curtis Blake 79-80--159

T17 Joe Johnston 77-83--160

T17 Akku Acharya 77-83--160

T19 Mark Mossfeldt 84-77--161

T19 John Moscrip 87-74--161

T19 Tyler Schiff 80-81--161

T22 Blake Hasquet 78-86--164

T22 Lyndsay Woolley 83-81--164

T22 Jason Winkler 81-83--164

T22 Christian Clark 82-82--164

T22 Walt Barnes 82-82--164

27 Brady Cady 82-85--167

28 Simon Lee 81-88--169

Second Flight

1 Kyle Taylor 75-81--156

T2 Loy Sullivan 79-78--157

T2 Brad Cox 72-85--157

4 Jamey Perlinski 76-82--158

5 Tommy Mann 75-84--159

T6 Brandann Rohrer 80-80--160

T6 Baker Montgomery 83-77--160

T6 Spencer Hughes 79-81--160

T9 Russ DeVore 79-82--161

T9 Chris Geddes 83-78--161

T9 Michael DeGrazier 83-78--161

T12 Jon Nau 82-80--162

T12 Scott Friggle 78-84--162

14 Steve Williamson 79-84--163

15 Nick Hustwaite 84-81--165

T16 Kyle Sheppard 86-80--166

T16 David Knight 80-86--166

T18 Jamin Patten 85-82--167

T18 Tim Kiley 84-83--167

T18 Colin Curtis 89-78--167

T18 Case Stockton 87-80--167

T22 Dan Knechtal 83-86--169

T22 Matthew Longfield 86-83--169

T24 Duke Moscrip 87-83--170

T24 Cam Geddes 87-83--170

T24 Zach Osborne 87-83--170

27 Tobin Woldtvedt 90-82--172

28 Mack DuVall 87-86--173

29 Gary Newlin 81-93--174

30 Matt Hedstrom 84-91--175

Third Flight

1 Dow Powell 81-76--157

T2 Micheal Burney 77-80--157

T2 Kevin Ryan 76-81--157

4 Jeff Pascoe 77-81--158

T5 Josh Joseph 77-82--159

T5 Raymond Pitman 82-77--159

T5 Gary Wagner 78-81--159

8 Billy Wagner 83-78--161

9 Kevin Woodin 77-85--162

10 Darryl Hustwaite 78-86--164

11 Jay Medley 80-86--166

T12 Joe Tourtelot 80-88--168

T12 Ryan Stewart 84-84--168

14 Barney Shynkanuk 83-86--169

15 Baker Stockton 86-87--173

T16 John Adams 86-88--174

T16 Brandon Hanson 83-91--174

18 Bryan Hall 89-87--176

19 Jeff Norlin 93-89--182

20 DJ O’Neal 93-91--184

Fourth Flight

1 Jeff Fairlee 77-83--160

2 John Velk 80-83--163

3 Art Williams 81-88--169

4 Theodore Dann 83-89--172

5 Luke Bauernfeind 80-94--174

T6 Dave Whisenand 92-83--175

T6 Thom Peck 86-89--175

8 Chrsitian Kaempfer 89-90--179

9 Jay Jovanovich 92-88--180

10 Patrick Montalban 95-89--184

T11 Austin Smith 88-98--186

T11 Mike Wong 90-96--186

13 Mark Stella 93-94--187

T14 Jim Langley 101-94--195

T14 David Abbott 96-99--195

16 Rob Gleason 108-94--202

Seniors

Championship

1 Gary Holt 76-74--150

2 Carroll Lilly 81-70--151

3 Peter Benson 77-75--152

4 Dave Streeter 78-77--155

5 Frank Sutton 78-80--158

6 Dan Konen 84-78--162

7 Larry Schwenke 81-83--164

8 Ian Fraser 86-80--166

9 Thomas Shea 90-85--175

10 Dan Lieberg 87-89--176

11 Robert Sandman 87-90--177

First Flight

1 Rod Brady 77-78--155

2 Don Foulkes 81-77--158

T3 John Brubaker 84-79--163

T3 Mike Bailey 79-84--163

5 Dan Wagner 87-77--164

T6 Doug Oleson 83-86--169

T6 Chris Vidulich 86-83--169

8 Dann Rohrer 84-86--170

9 John Rottger 87-89--176

T10 Stan Krause 89-91--180

T10 Brian Gore 94-86--180

Second Flight

1 Barry Fenn 87-87--174

2 Carl “Tom” Long 87-88--175

3 Brent Appelgren 88-89--177

T4 Ralph Hemp 88-90--178

T4 Allen Allred 90-88--178

6 Bob Slaven 90-90--180

7 Bruce Hogan 92-90--182

8 Brian Cripe 92-92--184

9 Doug Schmoldt 95-92--187

10 Brian Geddes 107-90--197

11 Dean Diez 97-102--199

12 Rick Wheeler 97-103--200

13 Ted Hodges 105-100--205

Women

Championship

1 Hailey Hoagland 71-72--143

T2 Maggie Crippen 68-78--146

T2 Kylie Esh 71-75--146

4 Coral Schulz 73-75--148

5 Cathie Tronson 74-75--149

6 Anna DeMars 76-75--151

7 Kyla Clancy 77-75--152

8 Teigan Avery 76-78--154

9 Carly McNaughton 76-85--161

10 Shealyn Hafer 80-83--163

11 Kasia Kazmierczyk 79-85--164

T12 Morgan O’Neil 76-89--165

T12 Sadie Crippen 83-82--165

First Flight

1 Marcy Holt 74-80--154

2 Katherine Wills 81-77--158

3 Karen Jacobson 81-79--160

4 Kathy Dodd 82-82--164

5 Bobbie Lacklen 81-84--165

T6 Ginny Larence 80-86--166

T6 Emily Garden 83-83--166

8 Nikki Norlin 86-81--167

T9 Jody Fee 82-86--168

T9 Marianne Barker 81-87--168

11 Marianne Nelson 87-82--169

Second Flight

1 Jeanette Cheney 83-83--166

2 Barb Lauzon 85-91--176

T3 Stephanie Joseph 86-93--179

T3 Kelly Coleman 83-96--179

5 Mary Armstrong 96-85--181

6 Marcia Reimers 92-90--182

T7 Stacy Denning 95-91--186

T7 Ruth Fenn 93-93--186

T9 Cheryl Walter 101-87--188

T9 Darcy Milller 99-89--188

11 Patsy Casteel 93-99--192

12 Linda Ray 106-97--203