Ohe Moves Closer to Second State Victory, Increases Lead at Minnesota State Junior Boys' Championship

  ALEXANDRIA, Minn. – Pacing the field for a second consecutive round, Torger Ohe fired a 4-under 69 Tuesday at Geneva Golf Club during the second round of the 99th Minnesota State Junior Boys’ Championship to extend his lead.

Eyeing his first state title since earning individual medalist honors at the Class AAA championship last season at Bunker Hills Golf Club, Ohe will take a four-stroke advantage over Jadan Ford to the final 18 holes at Alexandria Golf Club Wednesday.

"I'm happy with how the ball is coming off the face and where I’m missing it,” Ohe said Tuesday. “It’s been a lot easier when I know where I have a tendency to be instead of a two-way miss. Being able to play to one side and trusting that it’s going to do what I want it to do is a huge positive.

“Again, I gave myself a lot of chances today and converted on pretty much every single one. Definitely scorable conditions, but I did a good job of keeping the ball in play. I played pretty well on the front nine, minus one hole with a lot of mental mistakes that compiled on each other.”

Starting his second round on the 10th Tuesday, Ohe started the scoring with back-to-back birdies at the 11th and 12th to reach 8-under for the tournament.

Ohe struggled at the 15th by taking a triple-bogey, but countered by rolling in his birdie look at the par-3 17th to turn in even par for the round.

Carding three straight birdies from inside of six feet beginning at the second put Ohe at 8-under for the championship, but he’d give back a stroke at the fifth with a bogey.

Capitalizing on a three-footer for birdie at the seventh, Ohe moved to 9-under before dropping one final birdie chance from six feet at the par-5 ninth to extend his lead to four ahead of Wednesday’s final round.

“Tomorrow I just have to take it one hole at a time—we’ll see if my lead holds up. Going out and trying to give myself a chance on the last day is all I can ask for.”

Carding a bogey-free 66 during his opening round Monday, Ford played his first 11 holes in even par Tuesday before climbing into red figures to narrow the deficit with back-to-back two-putt birdies at his 12th and 13th holes.

But it was all the closer the University of Sioux Falls commit would get as Ford took a bogey on the final hole to card a second-round 72 to sit four shots back of Ohe’s lead with one round to play.

“It was a tougher course than we played yesterday,” Ford said following his second round Tuesday. “Started off with a birdie and felt like I was going to get hot again, but it’s hard to go however many holes bogey-free, so I knew it was coming eventually.

“Really proud of my putting—I’ve made up a lot of strokes around the greens just rolling in 12-footers for par or 15-footers for birdie. I can’t wait to be playing with some of the best kids in the state [tomorrow], I’m really excited.”

The younger Ohe, Sander, posted a 74 during his second round Tuesday to finish the first 36 holes of the championship tied for fourth with Collin Ramos and Ryan Cronin at 4-under 140.

The round of the day belonged to recent Chanhassen High School graduate and Mr. Minnesota Golf finalist Lucas Arntsen, who bounced back from his opening-round 74 to post a 6-under 67 during the second round Tuesday.

The final round of the 99th Minnesota State Junior Boys’ Championship gets underway at 8:10 a.m. Wednesday at Alexandria Golf Club