Wahkiakum Mule Golf

After a three hour drive to Ocean Shores on Monday, the weather got ugly just as we got out of the car. Intermittent rain and a 25 mph wind in our face for the first three holes seemed to affect everyone except Elliot Haney of Wahkiakum and Taylor Schisler of Ilwaco. They were the only two that kept their golf balls on the course and shared the lead by three strokes starting the 4th hole which also was dead into the wind.

That's where a series of bad breaks ruined the Mule senior's round. A tree branch caught his drive, leaving a bad lie inches from the out of bounds stake. His second shot came up short of the clearing, leaving a narrow path to the hole. His high approach shot came straight down out of a tree near the green and caught a root that propelled the ball 30 yards away from the green through a maze of trees. His chip shot caught a tree and went out of bounds resulting in a quadruple bogey eight and left him in third place with a 48. Schisler shot 43 and Kenneth Sheldon, also from Ilwaco, shot 45.

The Fisherman won the match with a four ball total of 193 while the Hyaks of North Beach shot 211 and the Mules were incomplete, fielding only two players.

Mule freshman Bryce Good finished sixth in the 16 man field with a 54, beating two of the Fisherman of Ilwaco and all but one of the Hyacks.

The Mules' last dual meet of the season will be next Monday at Ilwaco, with the District Championship looming the week of May 18th.

On April 30, Haney double bogeyed the first hole and shot a four over par 40 to finish second in the three team match at Skyline Golf Course.

Willamette College bound Kenneth Sheldon of Ilwaco showed why he has earned a college golf scholarship by shooting a superb 37 in his first ever visit to Skyline.

Only the top 8 players will qualify for State at The District 4 Golf Championships in Chehalis 2 weeks from now, 6 of the top 8 favored players teed it up at Surfside Golf Course on April 28.

Mule senior Haney, just back from a trip to Pittsburgh, PA, visiting Carnegie Mellon University to consider an academic scholarship, started the round with three putts on the first two holes and those two extra putts turned out to be the difference. He shot 41 to finish fourth as Nick Friend and Matthew Leu from Life Christian Academy in Tacoma shot 39 and Kenneth Shelton from Illwaco shot 40. Good shot 55 for a tie with Ethan Bannister of Ilwaco.