The District golf championships on May 16 at River’s Edge Golf Course in North Platte was a place the South Loup golf team has seen pretty recently.

Just one week ago, the Bobcats played the course which allowed them to have valuable experience prior to the all-important meet.

Head coach Jarod Rush said before the meet he told his guys to stay loose.

“Just go relax and play,” he said. “We have nothing to lose. Probably on paper, nobody is supposed to be in the top-10 expect Colbi so there shouldn’t be any pressure. Just relax and have fun.”

Colbi Smith did just that, securing a fifth-place finish in the district to qualify for the NSAA State Golf Tournament on May 24 - 25 in North Platte.

While most golfers would be elated about a qualification for state, Rush said Smith was disappointed in his round.

“I told him nobody remembers what you shot at districts,” he said. “State is a new ball game.”

Rush continued to say that Smith shot about 10 strokes worse than his typical round, and that is the result of River’s Edge being a more difficult course than what the Bobcats typically play.

“It was a rough day,” he said. “If you shoot a 90 at Arnold, you can plan on adding 15 strokes at River’s Edge. Weather was nice but the greens were super fast and it was hard to get a ball to stick on the greens. They were like glass.”

The plan in preparing Smith for his rounds at state next week is to get over to Lake Maloney, the site of the Class D State Championships, and get some reps in.

“Hopefully he can put together a couple of good days next week,” Rush said. “He is definitely capable. I’m going to tell him it’s his last opportunity to play free golf. From now on, he has to pay green fees to play, so go out and enjoy it.”

The Class D NSAA Boys Golf Championships will begin on May 24 at Lake Maloney Golf Club in North Platte.

The first round of action will tee off at 9 a.m. with the second round beginning on May 25 at 9 a.m.

May 11 the Bobcats got a few reps in at the Mullen Invitational, which gave the Bobcats some valuable time in competition.

“Wednesday was a really good day in Mullen,” Rush said. “It was almost hot. Kids played pretty well.”

Smith blistered the Mullen golf course for a 73 to take the gold at the invitational. Joey Sallach shot a 98 and Dylan Handley had his best day with a 105. Matthew Mannon also had a personal-record day of 117.

The Bobcats have made a number of improvements this season as they have worked through a number of factors that seemed to set them up for disaster.

Rain, wind, cold, heat and injuries were all things the team overcame and still found ways to get better.

“I would say one of our biggest gains would be our short game,” Rush said. “We have really worked hard on our short game. Over half of our shots are from 100 yards in and we have really stressed that.”

In thinking about the season as a whole, Rush said he had a lot to look forward to in the coming seasons with the Bobcat golfers.

“I had a great bunch of kids to work with,” he said. “They worked hard and got better. We are still young with lots of room for improvement. I’m hoping they play a lot of golf this summer.”

Mullen Golf Invitation May 11, 2022

May 11, 2022 Individual Bobcat Results

1. Colbi Smith

15. Joey Sallach

22. Dylan Handley

25. Matthew Mannon

26. Grant Hrupek

26. Grant Hrupek

TEAM SCORES

1. Sandhills Valley

2. Broken Bow JV

3. Anselmo-Merna

4. South Loup

5. Hyannis

6. Mullen

Paxton

Valentine JV

Wallace