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