By Brenda Erdahl
A rain delay and fast greens were some of the trials and tribulations that met Larson Melgaard on the course at the Minnesota State High School League State Golf Tournament last week.
Melgaard earned his state berth at sections and competed at the prestigious event at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan June 11-12th where he finished 46th out of 88 athletes in Class AA.
Day 1 yielded an 81 on the 18-hole course and day two, which was reduced to a 9-hole competition because of rain, produced a 41 for the Maple Lake High School junior.
They weren’t his best scores, he said, but he’s not unhappy.
“You don’t get good rounds all the time. I just picked bad days to have bad rounds,” he said. “I definitely know I left some out on the table, but I’ll be back.”
Melgaard described the Jordan course as scorable, but with the fastest greens he’s ever played and that affected his putting.
“If you are having a good day, it’s easy to go low, but you can get in trouble out there,” he said.
It didn’t help that halfway through Day 2’s competition the weather took a turn for the worse. Officials blew the horn announcing the delay when Melgaard was on the green of his eighth hole. The only thing between him and a birdie for the hole was a three-foot putt. He said he was actually happy for the break, as it had been a long day. When he came back four hours later, refreshed, he sunk that three-foot putt for the birdie.
When the rain didn’t let up, officials called it after nine holes.
“It was a lot of fun,” Melgaard said, and he’s excited to get back there next year as a senior and improve his finish. A number of friends and family came out to support him. He said he felt less nervous about the state competition than he had about sections. He said just knowing he made it, took some of the pressure off.
“It really did just feel like another tournament. The only difference was there were a lot more people watching, it was just a bigger stage,” he said.
According to Messenger archives, the last time an Irish golfer went to state was in 2014 when senior Tabitha Latzig earned the right. She was also the first Irish golfer to ever earn a state berth and that was in 2012 when she was a sophomore.