Peterson and Herrick Card 65 to Lead MGA Mixed Team at Valleywood

By Nick Hunter
nhunter@mngolf.org


  APPLE VALLEY, Minn. – A little home course knowledge came in handy for former club champion Trent Peterson and playing partner, Olivia Herrick, as the two carded a 7-under par 65 Tuesday to begin the 26th Minnesota Golf Association Mixed Team Championship at Valleywood Golf Course.

Peterson and Herrick will take a slim advantage over the team of Leigh Klasse and Leif Carlson as well as the team of Emily Israelson and Dakota Waverek who finished the opening round tied for second at 6-under par 66 Tuesday.

“We bogeyed the first hole but we played well after that,” Peterson said Tuesday. “Olivia had some nice shots and had a few close birdie putts.”

“There are a couple of holes that you really need to take advantage of,” Herrick said. “We played well but I don’t think we played our best golf today, we could’ve played the par-5’s better.”

Peterson, who is coming off back-to-back wins at the MGA Players’ Championship and the Twin Cities Championship last week, and Herrick, who won the MGA Mixed Team Championship in 2010, got off to a slow start Tuesday with a bogey on the opening hole.

The two quickly turned things around when Peterson rolled in his birdie putt at the second hole before Herrick got up-and-down for birdie at the third to get to 1-under for the round.

Herrick stuck her approach to five feet leading to birdie at the par-4 fifth hole put the two at 2-under before they would turn at 3-under with a birdie at the ninth. Herrick sank a 30-foot birdie at the par-4 11th hole to ignite two of the best amateur players in the state as she converted a short birdie putt at the 12th hole to move to 5-under before adding birdies at the 15th and 17th to finish at 65.

“Going 2-under on the front, I thought, ‘we can do better than that,’” Peterson said. “Olivia’s putt on 11 gave a boost to me because I figured we’d make birdie at 12 and then we made a couple more after that.”

Klasse and Carlson started quickly Tuesday with three consecutive birdies starting at the second hole before adding another birdie to the scorecard at the ninth to turn at 4-under. Klasse and Carlson would manage just two birdies over the back nine to finish the opening round one shot back at 66.

“We covered each other really well today,” Klasse said Tuesday, “If I had a bad hole, he played it well and vice versa. We had some very makeable putts that we didn’t make, so we could’ve very easily shot 63. There were some six-footers that Leif usually makes and I do too.

“It could’ve been better, but it certainly could’ve been worse too,” she said. “Tomorrow we need to put it in the right spots were the women really have an advantage with just a wedge in and we can do some scoring.”

Klasse won the event in 2004 with Joe Stansberry and again in 2009 with J.T. Johnson.

Israelson and Waverek, both golfers at Augustana University, started strong Tuesday with a birdie at the third hole before carding back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes to quickly jump to 3-under.

They would turn at 4-under after rolling in another birdie at the par-4 eighth. The two birdied both par-5’s on the final nine holes to finish in a tie for second after the first 18 holes of completion at 6-under par 66.

“We played pretty good today—we didn’t make any bogeys,” Israelson said following the round Wednesday. “I had some pretty short birdie putts inside of five feet. “There were some tricky greens today, but I think we can be more aggressive tomorrow, especially on the par-5’s.”

“We hitting fairways and greens,” Waverek added. “We had a nice stretch in the middle of the front nine where we were hitting a lot of shots tight and some putts were rolling in.”

The final round of the 26th MGA Mixed Team Championship is scheduled to begin Wednesday with tee times starting at 7:30 a.m. at Valleywood Golf Course.