Ponies take it one 18-hole round at a time

There is still so much uncertainty surrounding the fall, and fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Havre High golf teams are now two tournaments into their season, in spite of the uncertainty.

Monday afternoon, the Blue Ponies completed a big milestone for HHS sports when they wrapped up play at the Fergus Invitational in Lewistown. The 18-hole tournament held at Pine Meadows Golf Club in Lewistown was the first out-of-town sporting event Havre has played since last winter. But HHS head coach George Ferguson was more focused on the golf Monday than he was anything else.

"To me, Monday was more about our kids playing on a difference course than our own for the first time this season," Ferguson said. "And it went kind of how I expected. There was some nerves at first, even with our kids playing with each other. And there was some tough moments out there because of just not being as familiar with the course. But that's what we needed, I think. So no matter what the scores were, I was glad the kids got to compete in a different environment. They needed to play on a different course and test themselves."

Havre had only played last week's Havre Invitational, where the Pony boys won and the girls finished second. However, Monday, the roles were reversed. The Havre girls finished first in the tourney that was composed of all the Northeast A - Glendive, Miles City and Lewistown. The HHS boys came in second with a score of 369, 11 strokes behind host Lewistown.

The Pony girls were led by senior Jocelyn Staples, who fired a 104 for a second-place finish overall. Sophie Kirkpatrick also posted a Top 5 with a 111. Carlee Kato added a Top finish as well with a 112, while Katherine Greenwood rounded out the scoring for the Ponies with a 128.

"Our girls had some good stretches of golf," Ferguson said. "Lewistown is a tough course. It's a lot of uphill approaches, so you really have to adjust, and I thought our girls did that as they went on. And what I really liked was none of them were really satisfied with their scores. They talked about playing better moving forward. So that's a really good sign that our girls team is going in the direction they want to go right now."

The Havre boys may have fallen back a bit from last Thursday's performance at the Havre Invite, as the Ponies traded places with the Golden Eagles. Still, Havre did get a pair of Top 5's from Caleb Spangler, 89, and Caleb Chambliss who shot 90. Josh Warp was seventh with a 94, while Theron Peterson finished eighth with a 95, and Clint Owens rounded out the scoring with a 109.

"Our boys were disappointed," Ferguson said. "They know they can play much better. But at the same time, they hadn't played that course in over two years because there wasn't a Lewistown Invite last year, so there was a lot of unfamiliarity for them on the back nine. Also, I think they left some shots on the greens. I watched our guys miss a lot of really close birdie and par putts, so in reality, they were really close to shooting another really good team score, they were just a little off on the greens, and that's easily fixable. Our boys team is very good, and we have a lot of depth, so they'll have plenty of better rounds ahead of them this season."

This season is one in which Ferguson said he's trying hard not to get his players to take for granted. They've already lost three regular season tournaments that were supposed to be played before Labor Day due to the pandemic, so every round the ponies do get, Ferguson said, he's just making the most out of it.

"It was really exciting to be in Lewistown on Monday," Ferguson said. "To see our kids competing on the road, against all the teams in our conference, that was great. It was hot, and the course was tough, and that's what you want out of high school golf right now. So even though some of our kids didn't play as good as they wanted to, the bottom line is we got to play another high school golf tournament, and I am just happy for the kids to have gotten that opportunity."

Havre will try to play a third tournament next Wednesday when the Ponies host Lewistown for a dual meet at Prairie Farms. That day was to be the Harlowtown Match Play event with Lewistown and Livingston, but that tournament was canceled because match play isn't allowed in Montana high school golf this season.