PIERRE – The 82nd Annual SDHSAA Boys State Golf Championship Tournaments will begin on Monday for the state’s Class ‘A’ and ‘AA’ competitors. This year’s competitions will be played as two-day, thirty-six hole events, with Class ‘A’ at the Spearfish Canyon Country Club and Class ‘AA’ playing Lakeview Golf Course in Mitchell.
This year’s ‘AA’ field returns six of the top seven finishers from the 2011 event, including a pair of strong-playing sophomores: Last Year’s Runner-up Sam Musch of Rapid City Stevens, and third-place finisher Tommy Vining of Sioux Falls Lincoln, who recently captured the individual GDC title. Sioux Falls O’Gorman is the two-time defending team champion.
The Class ‘A’ competition will be highlighted by the return of the top three teams from last year’s event, including defending champion Harrisburg, runner-up Dell Rapids and Aberdeen Roncalli – all of whom finished within six strokes of one another in 2011. Sioux Falls Christian is also in the field, seeking its seventh Team Championship in eight years after finishing fourth in 2011.
Also returning to the Class ‘A’ field is Ryan Medhaug of Sisseton. Medhaug, a senior, captured Individual Championship titles in both 2010 and ’11, giving him the opportunity to be the first male golfer to capture three consecutive individual titles since 1935 (Reuben Narlin, Sioux Falls). Only two other golfers in State History have captured three or more Individual Champions; none since 1996 (Narlin & Wil Collins of Rapid City).
Full tournament information, including pairings and tee-times can be found by logging on to the SDHSAA website – www.sdhsaa.com.