By Tim Wester
Playoff golf just seems to suit Union Grove golfer senior Sam Maier.
After becoming the first boys golfer in school history to qualify for the WIAA State Tournament last season, Maier took the first step to making a return trip to state.
Maier shot a sectional-qualifying 84 at a WIAA Division Regional at Geneva National Golf Course Tuesday, May 24 to lead the way for Union Grove.
Teammate and fellow senior Ben Maier (87) also qualified for sectionals, finishing just three strokes behind Sam Maier.
The Maiers will make their bid for state Tuesday at a WIAA Division 1 Sectional at Brighton Dale Links in Kansasville.
“I am very pleased that Sam and Ben qualified as individuals,” Union Grove golf coach Eric Swanson said. “They are both great kids, so I am just thankful that I get the opportunity to coach them for at least another week.”
The Maier duo’s strong day, however, wasn’t enough to lift Union Grove to sectionals as the Broncos finished fifth at the tournament.
Lake Geneva Badger (328) won the tournament with Milton (341), Beloit Memorial (342), and Janesville Parker (343) also punching their tickets to sectionals.
“We had certainly hoped to qualify as a team for sectionals, but we fell short of that goal,” Swanson said. “We really struggled with our putting today and had numerous triple and even a couple quadruple bogies.
When you are in a competitive regional, you just can’t afford those types of holes.
The Broncos rough day was amplified when its number one golfer Eric Chambers was disqualified for signing an incorrect score on his card.
“Eric inadvertently signed for an incorrect score,” Union Grove coach Eric Swanson said. “When he discovered the mistake, he reported it to the scoring table, but he had already signed the card so he was disqualified. Even with his actual score, we might not have qualified as a team.”
Eric Chambers had a much better day at the Southern Lakes Conference Tournament at Twin Lakes Country Club Wednesday, May 18.
Chambers (76) finished second in the individual standings on the day, six strokes off the pace set by tournament winner Luke Bourneuf of Badger.
Overall, the Broncos struggled took third in the tournament with a 338, five strokes behind second place Wilmot. As predicted, Badger (313) won the tournament going away.
Despite the lower than expected finish in the tournament, the Broncos still finished second overall in the Lakes, a spot they had seemingly been locked into since the start of the season.
“Our goal this year was to finish second in conference because we knew it would be tough to top Badger, who is one of the best teams in the state,” Swanson said. “We played well in spots in the tournament, but other than Eric Chambers, we were not able to put together two good nines.”
Chambers indeed played well for 18 holes, shooting a 39 on the first nine, and then 37 on the back nine.
“Eric struggled with his chipping, but other than that, played really well,” Swanson said. He has played much better than he has scored all season, so it was nice to see him get his score down into the mid 70’s.”
The rest of the Broncos, however, failed to match Chambers’ consistency.
Connor Brown (85) finished second on the team and 22 overall, while Sam Maier (86) was 23rd. Ben Maier rounded out the top four Bronco finishers with a 91.
“Connor did come back with a very good back nine after struggling through the first nine holes,” Swanson said. “After Chambers, the rest of the guys got off to slow starts, which hurt their final scores.”
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