Avery birdies 18, wins State Juniors
Glacier's Tyler Avery watches his drive on the 10th tee during the Kalispell Invite at Northern Pines Golf Club on Wednesday, Sept. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
A two-putt from 30 feet isn’t the most exciting way to nail down a Montana State Juniors golf championship.
But Tyler Avery’s approach on 18 Tuesday? That was money.
“I had to hit it from between two trees from about 180 yards out, with about 10-12 feet in between,” Avery said after winning the 2023 title by one stroke over Missoula’s Kade McDonough. “Just hit it right through them and it left me with a 30-footer and I knew I just needed to two-putt it.
“That was the shot I’d been waiting for all year — coming down to the wire and pulling it out when you need to.”
The Glacier High graduate’s two-putt birdie gave him a 68 on Tuesday and a two-day total of 134, 10-under par. McDonough, the Missoula Sentinel senior to be, shot 68-67 for a 135 total. After birdies coming in on 13, 15 and 16, McDonough parred No. 18.
Avery was golfing with 2022 State A medalist Aubrey Kelley of Livingston and Laurel’s Sam Norman and Eli Wiesenberger at Helena’s Bill Roberts Municipal Golf Course.
“Kade was the group ahead and I knew he’d been playing great the last six holes and making his move,” Avery said. “And I just had to hold him off.”
Kelly (8-under 136) and Norman (7-under 135) finished 3-4 in the 16-18 Flight. Joe McGreevey, the Helena Capital golfer who like Avery is headed to Montana Tech, tied for fifth with Butte’s Jack Prigge and Libby’s Reece Malyevac, four shots back of Avery.
“I’m excited to have (McGreevey) as my roommate and on the same team,” said Avery, who noted Prigge is headed to Occidental College in California. “He shot 66 today, which is pretty awesome.”
It was obviously a star-studded field.
“This is a little bit different,” said Avery, who lost a playoff to Prigge for AA medalist honors last fall. “I know the competition is a lot better here. Every good player in the state that wants to compete is there. You know it’s going to be a dogfight, and I’m extremely happy to have won it two times.”
Avery won the 2020 State Juniors title in Bozeman, was sixth in the 16-18 Flight in 2021 and was 17th last season in Laurel. Whitefish’s Billy Smith won last year’s juniors title.
Kalispell’s Sam Engellant (70-75) took 10th in the 16-18 Flight, and his Glacier High teammate Trevor Cunningham shot 145 to finish two strokes back of Corvallis’ Brady Powell in the 14-15 Flight.
Polson’s Maxwell Milton (135) won the 13-14 Flight, and Whitefish’s Finley Ross (159) was fifth.
Complete results can be found on the home page at msgagolf.org.