Marcella Mercer closed with a second-round 77 to hold off the field at the Missoula County Public Schools Invitational and Whitefish’s Cameron Kahle and Ella Shaw both won on their home course as the prep golf season began in earnest on Tuesday, Aug. 27
Mercer, a junior at Flathead High School, posted an 80 on Monday at Missoula Country Club to take a three-stroke lead into the second round at the 11-team tournament. The action moved to Canyon River Golf Club on Tuesday and Mercer’s two-day total of 157 was good enough to fend off Macee Greenwood of Corvallis (83-76—159) and Kodie Hoaglund of Butte (83-77—160) to earn medalist honors. Flathead and Glacier tied for fourth in the team standings. Mercer finished fifth in Class AA last season.
Kahle, a junior at Whitefish high, finished comfortably ahead of the competition at Whitefish Lake Golf Club to win the one-day Western A Kick-Off Tournament. Kahle’s 73 was four shots better than Polson’s Trey Kelley (77) and nine ahead of third-place finisher Andrew Brozek, also of Whitefish (82). The Bulldogs topped team standings with a score of 326, well clear of Frenchtown (361) and Columbia Falls (369). Kahle finished second in Class A at the 2018 state tourney.
Two Whitefish teammates finished atop the leaderboard in the girls event, with Shaw (87) and Megan Archibald (93) occupying the first two spots. The Bulldogs girls (372) also won the team competition, taking first by more than 40 strokes over Frenchtown (415). Shaw and Archibald, both seniors, are each coming off all-state seasons.
The 2019 fall golf season includes Class A and AA — the other classes compete in the spring — and concludes the first week of October.