EVANSVILLE — The 16-team Evansville Invitational played much like a regional or sectional. Ever-changing terrain, long and narrow fairways, and an X-factor of steady winds near 20-miles per hour gave golfers a lot to manage.

“It was a little bit of a rough day. With the wind, a lot of those iron shots were just kind of dying off,” New Glarus coach Jonathon Goodness said after the invite, held April 26 at the par-72 Evansville Golf Club. “At times, as I was talking to my players, there were normally shots that were normally right on and they would sail by 30 yards or they’d land short by 30.”

Edgerton won the team title with a 345. Columbus finished second (360), New Glarus third (364) Monroe seventh (377) and Brodhead 13th (465).

“We’ve had regionals and sectionals out here, and that’s why I love coming out here — it’s that caliber of a course,” Monroe coach Braden Rindy said. “They played Ok for the conditions. It was windy, and it’s small greens — it always plays hard out here — lots of trees. It’s a nice day and we enjoyed ourselves, and that’s what counts. The kids were getting better.”

The Evansville course played 6,562-yards from the blue tee box and has four par-3s and four par-5s. The par-5 second hole skips across the driveway that enters the parking lot and the front nine circles around the perimeter of the entire course, which is nearly a square, with the back nine tucked inside. There are five water hazards and 26 sand bunkers.

“You’ve got to keep it in play and out of trouble,” Brodhead coach Eric Oliver said. “There’s enough trouble on this course you can put up some high numbers if you don’t keep it out of trouble.”

Lakeside Lutheran’s Lukas Heckmann was the medalist, finishing as the top-scoring individual with a 76. Edgerton’s Kyle Wille and Lodi’s Jackson Furniss tied for second with 82s, and Monroe’s Jack Rogerson tied Austin Lietha of Columbus and Joe Forsting of Edgerton with an 83.

“It was alright. The conditions — it was really windy,” Rogerson said, adding that for the most part he tried to play his normal game on the course. “But I played a little bit worse.”

Rogerson finished with nine pars on his round, including a stretch of five in a row from No. 8-12.

“I was decent. But I could have made up a lot of strokes, because I kept hitting it over the green and making dumb decisions,” Rogerson said.

Noah Becker finished with an 89 for Monroe, while Conner Allen carded a 96. Becker had a birdie on the par-3 10th and parred two other holes. Allen also had two pars and a birdie (17th). Bryce Winters (109) had two pars for the Cheesemakers.

Rindy said that no matter the conditions, he wants his players to focus on finishing the hole more than starting it.

“We always concentrate on our short game, getting up and down. Most of us have been doing a pretty good job of getting off the tee box, but the chips and the putts are where we are going to save more strokes in the future,” Rindy said.

The Glarner Knights have chased Columbus all spring. The Cardinals are in first place in the Capitol Conference season standings, while New Glarus is slightly behind Lodi in fourth. At the Evansville meet, Matt Hach and Jacob Krantz each shot a pair of 89s, while Ty Ready and Jared Martinson carded 93s.

“Jacob Krantz was able to string together about five straight pars, but didn’t finish as well as he’d like with a couple bigger numbers. I think everybody on the team had at least a couple triples,” Goodness said. “It was a little bit of a rough going, but hopefully we’ll be able to pull some positives from this. We have some things to work on before our next conference meet.”

Hach had five pars and a birdie on the par-5 15th. A double-bogey on No. 8 and a quadruple-bogey on No. 9 pushed Hach out of the running for a top 10 finish. Parkview’s Trey Oswald was the No. 10 scorer with an 87.

Krantz parred nine holes, including a five-hole stretch on the back nine from 11-15. However, he closed the back nine with two triple-bogeys (16, 18) and a bogey on 17.

Martinson parred four holes, but a quadruple-bogey on nine and a triple on four set his pace off.  Ready had five bogies, four of which came on the back nine. Ryan Winder’s 120 didn’t count for the team’s score, but he snagged his only par of the day on a chip-and-run from 30 yards out on 18.

Goodness said that the level of competition at the meet was a good thing. A team like Edgerton, a perennial state-contender, can give his players different ideas on how to approach their own games.

“You get to see some really good teams. Edgerton was here, and our guys get to see how some of their guys approach their game. We can glean some of those approaches and how they hit their shots and carry themselves,” Goodness said. “That’s a good thing to take away midseason. We’re kind of running into that playoff time, so hopefully we can start to clean some things up and gear up for playoffs.”

Dayton Oliver had Brodhead’s best day with a 97, a round that included a pair of pars. Wyatt Visger shot a 127 for the Cardinals, while Bailey Watson carded a 123 and Onni Oliver had a 118 with a par on 13.

“It was a long day. They did alright. (For) some of our kids this is the first time they’ve had to play 18 consecutively in competition. So that was a challenge. The wind was hard. It was a tough day to play,” coach Oliver said.

With the Decatur course now closed, the Cardinals have been practicing in Monroe this spring.

“We’ve been practicing at Monroe, so the greens and stuff here (in Evansville), which typically are a problem (for us), weren’t as bad because we’ve had some more difficult greens in our practice rounds. All-in-all it was probably an OK day. We didn’t score our best, but we didn’t score our worst, either,” coach Oliver said.

These early competitions should help the young Cardinals squad, according to their coach.

“They are getting there. It’s still early. We’re about to hit a stretch here where we’re playing about three times a week in competition. They are still trying to get their feet wet. We’ve got a few kids that are new to this all, and it’s a pretty steep learning curve to try to get thrown into this, but they are handling it all right,” coach Oliver said.

Capitol Mini Meet, April 25

SPRING GREEN — Cambridge edged Columbus by a stroke (170-171), while Lodi and Lakeside Lutheran tied for second (185) with New Glarus a stroke back in fourth at The House on the Rock Resort Golf Course.

Monticello-Belleville’s Pete Gustafson was one stroke off a top-5 finish with a 42 on the par-36 course. Hach led New Glarus with a 44, while Martinson and Ready carded 47s and Krantz a 48.

“Jared took a nine on an early par-3, but he stayed focused and was able to get a 47. I’m proud of the way her played and worked after that,” Goodness said.

SWAL Golf

FENNIMORE — Darlington played its first two meets of the season in April — at Barneveld’s Deer Valley course April 15 and then the Fennimore meet April 26.

At the season-opening Barneveld meet, the Redbirds came in last in the 7-team meet with a 283, though Darlington’s typical top-2 scorers were unavailable to compete due to a school field trip.

“We would have been about 50 shots better if this was the case,” Redbirds coach Brent Tuescher said of not having Cody Crist and Atticus Stauffacher.

Cole Roelli led Darlington with a 55, while Michael Kendall had a 65 and freshmen Ethan Schuchart (75) and Brycen Mullen (88) rounded out the top four.

“Schuchart has excellent athleticism, but only started golfing last summer, so it will be fun to watch his skills improve over the coming years,” Tuescher said.

Mineral Point won the meet with a 176.

At the Fennimore meet at Hickory Grove, the Redbirds shot a 230 as a team, finishing sixth.

“A vast improvement from our first meet, but we still have room to improve and cut down on mental mistakes,” Tuescher said.

Mineral Point won the Fennimore meet with a 183. Cuba City-Southwestern (192), Barneveld (198) and Argyle-Pecatonica (205) finished top-4 in the team standings.

Ben Figi led Argyle-Pecatonica with a 47, while Noah Krahenbuhl carded a 48, Jeff Saether had a 53 and Justin Carlson a 57. Mineral Point’s Simon Mitchell was the medalist of the meet with a 40.

“Cody Crist led Darlington with a 48 that could have easily been a 42 if his putter would have cooperated,” Tuescher said.

Roelli had a 55, Kendall a 63 and Stauffacher and Schuchart tied with a 64.

“Going forward, continuing to cut down on mental mistakes and putts will be a priority,” Tuescher said.