After going 52-years without winning a boys state golf title, the Watertown Arrows have now gone back-to-back to years as champs. They claimed the top prize on Tuesday in Watertown during the ‘AA’ state tournament at Cattail Crossing Golf Course.
For Arrows senior Ty Lenards, he also won the individual state title in dramatic fashion. Last year, Jake Olson, also of Watertown, won the individual state championship. Lenards mentioned how the culture in Watertown for golf is strong.
“I think what’s special about golf in Watertown is the culture we’ve built,” he said. “It’s a team sport for us. We’re always checking with each other in practices. Checking on putter strokes, our swings, giving critiques to give confidence.”
Lenards approached the 18th hole on Tuesday shooting ten-under-par for the tournament. He had a two-stroke lead, while Watertown had a three-stroke lead in the team standings.
His drive on 18 went off the mark, and then instead of trying to be aggressive and go towards the green, he punched it out onto the fairway. A few shots later he was setup for a short bogey putt to end it, but fate had other plans.
“I’m not sure what happened, just yanked it a little bit. I did know my individual lead was two. That putt was a little bigger,” Lenards explained. “Obviously wish I would have ended it right there, but it was still pretty sweet to just win our team victory right there, have a nice moment with my team, pretty emotional, but then [head coach Corey Neale] came up to me and said ‘great job, time to lock back in.’”
After 36 total holes over the two day event, Lenards was tied with Derek Andersen of Tea Area at eight-under-par, which meant a playoff would decide the winner.
“Honestly, going into the playoff, I wasn’t too nervous. I had just come off 18, Derek just got done 45-minutes ago, and I had all the confidence in the world,” Lenards stated. “I knew after missing that putt on 18, I had a four-footer for the win in the playoff, and I knew I wasn’t going to miss it. It was just an amazing moment, sharing it with my family, teammates, and coaches.”
Lenards bounced back for a birdie in the playoff hole to secure the individual state title.
Watertown received exceptional play from its other golfers too at the state tournament. Kaden Rylance finished tied for seventh with two-under-par, Gabe Norberg shot three-over tied for fourteenth, Jonathan Lake tied for seventeenth at four-over, Jaden Solheim placed twenty-sixth with seven-over, and Max Stemwedel tied for twenty-seventh with eight-over.
Lenards also mentioned how last year’s success, which included having Jake Olson on the team, helped push this year’s team to want to be great as well.
“Having [Jake], it wanted us younger guys looking up to him want to make our golf games better, because we wanted to be like him,” said Lenards. “Our four seniors this year, we’ve always had that competitive nature, but having Jake helped us get to that higher level. Losing him after last year, some of us knew that we needed to step up.”
Every championship team is molded differently, but most will tell you that responding to adversity is key. For this year’s Arrows team, adversity hit in the conference tournament, and it was everybody’s job to respond in a positive manner.
“We got blown out by about 20 strokes at the conference tournament. It was the next day at practice we got our butts chewed. We just lost it mentally,” explained Lenards. “[Assistant coach Ryan Neale] said it was the first time he’s seen that in four years at Watertown golf. That kind of sank in. We’ve got a state tournament at home. Our seniors, last one ever, we weren’t going to let Pierre beat us again at home.”
The late season wake up call paid off as once again Watertown can celebrate a state championship. For Ty Lenards, he’s not sure what his future will hold, but he hopes golf is in his college plans. And to end his prep golf career with an individual title and a team state championship – it’s the perfect ending.
“I wouldn’t want to go out any other way,” Lenards said.
Watertown finished in first as a team with seven-under-par. Pierre TF Riggs finished right behind them in second with six-under-par. Harrisburg concluded the state tourney in third with five-under par, Brandon Valley ended with ten-over-par, and O’Gorman rounded out the top-5 at thirteen-over-par in the team standings.
