Extended Season Boosts Golf Rounds in Minnesota in 2024
December 23, 2024
NORTH OAKS -- The Women's State Four-Ball Championship has, for the most part, been the preserve of college players in recent years. Natalie Samb, who has been on the winning team each of the last two years, finished her junior year at Wichita State a few weeks ago.
Last year, Samb won with Olivia Lansing, who at the time was one year removed from Drake. Lansing had also won a Four-Ball title shortly after her junior year in college (with Drake teammate Kelly Godwin), and her sister Natalie combined with Samb to win in 2010, when she was between her freshman and sophomore years at Lehigh.
So far this year, however, the top of the leaderboard at the Women's Four-Ball has the look of a high school tournament.
Cassie Deeg and Celia Kuenster, the two girls who tied for the Class AAA championship at last year's state high school tournament (the Minnesota State High School League does not break ties for first in golf), shot a 68 on Monday at North Oaks Golf Club. As a result, they will take a two-stroke headstart into Tuesday's final round.
Deeg is almost a college player. She graduated from Stillwater in June and will be playing for the University of Nebraska in a couple of months. But Kuenster, who won a second state high school title this spring, hasn't even begun her junior year at Cretin-Derham Hall yet. Deeg was the MGA's 2011 Girls Junior Player of the Year. Kuenster won the MWGA Women's State Amateur last summer, and also the State Girls Junior Championship (a tournament that Deeg won in 2009).
The defending Four-Ball champs, Samb and Olivia Lansing, are one of the teams tied for second place at 70. Also at that number are two more high school juniors-to-be -- Wayzata's Sarah Burnham and Buffalo's Lexi Bollant.
Betsy Aldrich, a former champion (she won the Four-Ball with Ede Rice in 2006), and Leigh Klasse, the four-time -- and current -- MGA Women's Player of the Year, are another stroke back at 71, tied with college players Steffi Neisen (Nebraska) and Gretchen Huhnerkoch (Wichita State).
The last time a pre-college player won the Women's Four-Ball was 1997, when Kalen Anderson, who had just graduated from Edina and was headed for Duke, combined with her cousin Alissa Herron to claim the title at Dellwood Hills.
MINNESOTA WOMEN'S GOLF ASSOCIATION
Women's State Four-Ball Championship
At North Oaks Golf Club
Par 74, 6,162 yards
First-round results
1. Cassie Deeg/Celia Kuenster 34-34--68
T2. Olivia Lansing/Natalie Samb 35-35-70
T2. Sarah Burnham/Lexi Bollant 37-33--70
T4. Leigh Klasse/Betsy Aldrich 36-35--71
T4. Gretchen Huhnerkoch/Steffi Neisen 36-35--71
6. Anna Laorr/Jaclyn Shepherd 36-36--72
T7. Mary Sweeney/Hailey Boner 39-34--73
T7. Christine Dean/Theresa Ward 39-34--73
9. Vanessa Kleckner/Michelle Kleckner 41-33--74
10. Brianna Janu/Samantha Falk 40--35--75
11. Claudia Pilot/Brenda Williams 38-38--76
December 23, 2024
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December 17, 2024
December 17, 2024
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