It was a big day for Harrisburg boys golf on Tuesday at Lakeview Golf Course in Mitchell as the school claimed the state ‘AA’ team championship, and Tigers freshman, Riley Christensen, took home the individual state title.
For Riley, he shot -4 in the opening round on Monday, and then shot even par on day two to finish the tournament. But as Riley will tell you, the front nine on Tuesday was a little rough for him.
"I didn’t start off the best. I think I shot two-over, 38 on the front nine - great birdie on No. 8 to kind of mellow it out a little more than it was. But on the back nine I just felt a little more confident,” Christensen told. “I knew that I still had a same shot lead that I had going into the start of the day, so that was great, kind of started again from square one.”
With any state tournament, anticipation grows as the end grows near. For the Harrisburg freshman golfer, he tried to harness the energy from the increase in spectators.
“On 17, I saw how big the crowd was and I was like “holy crap, that’s a big crowd.” I love big crowds, I like feeding off the crowd. It makes me feel more chill,” explained Christensen. “For sure I was nervous, but it was really cool to see everyone just around the green. It was my first time ever being in the final group, so that was really cool.”
Christensen was left in the dark as far as scores on the back-nine, which was by design to an extent.
“I knew we were leading throughout the day, but I didn’t really know by how much. My coaches wouldn’t tell me,” said Christensen. “It was really nice to hear on 17 — one of my playing partners Nick Bothun (Pierre TF Riggs) told me we had an eight shot (team) lead, so I was like “ok, I just got to secure the solo lead now.””
