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LIVE TO PUTT ANOTHER DAY

POLK CITY – Sometimes all you can do is tip your cap to the guy or team next to you and say well done.

It’s not that second-ranked and reigning state champion Webster City played bad; quite the opposite, in fact. Still, its 18-hole season-low score of 301 was only good enough to place second at a Class 3A sectional tournament on a windy day at the Tournament Club of Iowa yesterday.

Top-ranked Gilbert and its leader Garret Jensen simply sizzled.

With Jensen throwing darts at the pins all day to the tune of a 4-under 67 – yes, 4-under 67 – the Tigers had the ammunition needed to claim the sectional crown with a 294.

Both WCHS and Gilbert advanced on to next Friday’s district tournament at the Ames Golf and Country Club.

“It’s survive and advance,” WCHS senior Alec Fuhs, who was second behind Jensen with a 1-over par 72, said afterwards. “Gilbert played pretty well and Garret, that’s a dang good round.”

Fuhs had a front-row seat for the Garret Jensen Show. Playing in the same group, Fuhs watched Jensen record two birdies and an eagle early on to get to 4-under after five holes. He eventually got it to 5-under before bogeying the par-4 ninth for an outward 31. Jensen notched three more birdies on the back nine.

“Yeah, it was fun watching him,” Fuhs said.

Fuhs had his swing in rhythm all day and went out in 1-over 36, but was unable to make many putts to apply the pressure to Jensen. He stuck a tee shot to five feet and made the putt for a birdie at the par-3 16th to get back to even, but gave the stroke right back on the par-5 17th when he went right of the fairway and took two hacks to get it out of the rough.

“I hit the ball well, but my putting killed me,” Fuhs said. “I’ll be working on that before next week.”

Gilbert and WCHS actually owned the top seven spots on the individual leaderboard. Drew Fielder threw in a 73 to place third and Avery Fuhs was right behind him in fourth with a 74 for the Lynx.

Starting on the back nine, Fielder was even until he dunked his tee shot into the water on the par-4 18th, resulting in a double-bogey. But he answered quickly with a birdie at the first and then kept the momentum going with a par-save bomb on the second green.

“I was pretty happy with my round,” Fielder said. “The birdie on No. 1 was a big momentum builder … (the long putt on No. 2) was huge because I knew my putter was heating up.”

Fielder was just happy he made it around the par-71 track. Still thinking about his surgically repaired knee, the hilly terrain wasn’t an easy walk.

“This was the toughest course I’ve ever had to walk,” Fielder said. “I didn’t even know if I was going to make it.”

Avery Fuhs’ round included birdies on the two par-5’s on the back – Nos. 13 and 17.

Sean Vogelbacher held his round together for a counting 82. Right behind him with an 83 was Nathan Ferrell and Connor Shannon added an 89.

All four of Gilbert’s counting rounds were 76 or better.

The course didn’t quite match up to what WCHS was expecting. The Lynx played from the Palmer tees, which total 6,515 yards, during their practice round on Sunday, but the tournament was played from the much closer, and much easier, Deacon tees (6,113 yards).

That didn’t necessarily sit well with the players.

“It was a completely different course than when we played our practice round,” Alec Fuhs said. “I don’t like that short of a course … I like longer, more difficult courses.”

Losing wasn’t what the Lynx had in mind, but Gilbert also beat the Lynx at last spring’s sectional tournament. And the season seemed to work out OK for WCHS the remainder of the way.

“We played really, really well and I’m proud of my guys,” WCHS head coach Dave Brighton said. “We threw up a pretty good score on a course that we haven’t seen very much.”

Nevada shot a 317 to finish third. Boone (329) and Ballard (334) completed the top five.

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