As a windstorm whipped through the Flathead Valley, knocking over push carts and generally causing havoc across Northern Pines Golf Club, the top two Class AA girls golfers teed off on their last hole.
And then teed off on another last hole. And another.
Becca Washington of Billings Senior and Hanna Boyd of Great Falls finished the two-day tournament in Kalispell tied at 155, with Washington making up a three-stroke deficit from Thursday’s round, forcing a playoff to decide the girls title.
The two seniors were even after the first playoff on No. 18, playing with the wind before Washington prevailed on the second playoff hole facing into the gale.
It was a touch of drama to end the Class AA golf tournament, which saw close results across the scorecards. Gallatin High School won the girls team title by a single stroke over Billings West 697-698. Billings Senior placed third in 701.
The boys team race was similarly close with the top three teams separated by just five strokes at the end of day one and Sentinel holding the lead over Bozeman and defending champion Glacier.
Coming into the final hours of the afternoon, however, Glacier had flipped the script and took the lead, with the Wolfpack up by seven strokes at one point. In the end a par on No. 18 by senior Sam Engellant and several pars from Torren Murray kept Glacier two stokes clear of Sentinel and the Wolfpack brought home a second-straight trophy.
“It was nip and tuck right down to the end,” said first-year Glacier head coach Jim Ness. “But I’ll tell you I’m so proud of those boys, I can’t even describe it. I knew these boys had it in them all year and they battled all the way to the end. Ecstatic is the only word that can describe right now.”
Since winning the program’s first state golf title in more than a decade last fall, the Wolfpack golfers had their eyes on a second trophy with the entire team back this year. “We’re looking very strong, and we already know we want it again,” Tanyon Murray told the Beacon following the 2023 victory.
“It just feels so good to go back to back,” Torren Murray, who shot a tournament-low 68 on Friday to finish seventh, said today. “Not everyone gets to experience this, much less twice in a row. And being here on the home course makes it feel even better.”
Sentinel’s Hudson Goroski came from three strokes back to win medalist honors shooting 141. Bozeman’s Cooper Bourret was second in 142 and Glacier’s Engellant and Sentinel’s Jack Schaefer tied for third with 145.
Engellant tied for first last fall, coming up short in a two-hole playoff, and was a season-long favorite for the individual title. Having overcome a major injury that sidelined him during his sophomore year, Engellant said throughout the season that he was keeping any expectation of medalist honors in perspective. “I love winning tournaments and being at the top, but those days when I’m not doing well, I’m just so happy to be out there,” he told the Beacon earlier this year. “Like at least I’m out here on the course. At least I’m able to have fun and love the game.”
With another team title in hand, Engellant was nothing but smiles after his final round of high school golf.
“It’s really great closure for me,” he said. “I’ll look back and be smiling about this day for a long time.”