Everyone on Kimball’s golf squad agreed on two things after Monday’s Scottsbluff Invite wrapped up. First, the greens were frightening—sand packed and recently aerated, so chips kicked up dust and taps toward the pin bounced unpredictably.

“Every putt was a guess,” Landon Smith reported. “You couldn’t read the greens.”

Second, the Longhorns had just suffered through their worst performance of the season, falling 38 strokes and six positions behind the winning Scottsbluff team. Smith lapsed into a over par streak that lasted nine holes. Jeff Greenwood knocked the ball out of bounds twice. And Henry Heeg’s five iron snapped in half mid-swing.

“It was bad ju-ju, I guess,” observed Todd O’Hare, who shot an 85 to pace the team.

Smith and Heeg both tallied 87s, Caleb Reuter filed in at 97 while Greenwood settled for an 89 on his birthday—not quite the present he expected.

“I have to keep telling myself it’s just one bad round out of all the rounds we’ll play,” he explained. “We’ll come back at conference.”



The only real opposition Kimball faced at the Alliance Invite on Saturday proved both fierce and relentless.

“It seemed like every other hole faced right into it,” Henry Heeg said of the steady 30-plus mile an hour winds ravaging the course. “It got annoying.”

Chip shots veered off line, drives wallowed if lofted above the tree line. Gusts even knocked slow putts away from their intended targets. Todd O’Hare finally caved in to the conditions, forsaking practice swings on the final few holes in an effort to hurry the game along and head for shelter.

Still, Kimball cruised to their fifth consecutive team victory, shooting 324 to best a field of 18 squads and 108 golfers. Most participants decided the constant gale cost them five strokes or more.

“They’ve been playing in wind long enough to know how to do it,” said coach Aaron Delhay. “But not that strong a wind,” he conceded.

“I didn’t hit any green,” Landon Smith reported. “I had to club up a lot.”

Indeed, club selection and low approach shots were critical, as well as some additional calculations once within reach of the pin.

“You had to compensate for the wind on the greens,” Jeff Greenwood pointed out.

Greenwood led the way with a 78, one ahead of Smith. Heeg’s 82 and O’Hare’s 85 rounded out the team scoring. Caleb Reuter improved by three strokes after making the turn to card out at 99.