Todd O’Hare paused on the cart path behind Kearney Country Club’s 18th green. Although two Kimball golfers—Henry Heeg and Landon Smith—were still on the course, the senior already knew the outcome.

“I wanted to end with a bang,” he said. “We didn’t quite do it.”

The Longhorns voiced a clear goal heading into the 2012 season, fully expecting a top three finish in the state tournament. But on the unusually dry fairways at Kearney, they wound up locked in a tie for seventh with Elmwood Murdock, their 680 two day score putting them six strokes behind Hartington Cedar Catholic. Sutton won the Class C title by shooting 637.

On the individual leader board, Jeff Greenwood and Henry Heeg fell into the 36th position along with five other golfers. O’Hare slotted in at 43rd and Smith in a tie for 46th—all behind personal expectations.

“It was kind of a let down,” O’Hare reported. “But we can’t go back now.”

Sustained winds caused trouble throughout the round on Tuesday. Greenwood double bogeyed a par four and par five and bogeyed two more long fairways. Smith suffered through a rough day, hitting par on only seven holes. And O’Hare’s usually deft baby draw approaches sailed off course. Only Heeg, who birdied 11 and fired six consecutive pars over a near flawless back nine, had an answer for the steady gusts—and even he couldn’t manage a compliment.

“Yeah,” he nodded with a grimace, “it was that bad.”

The winds settled somewhat for Wednesday’s final round. Greenwood opened with a string of pars. But a bogey on six, a south to north par four with a slight dogleg right, seemed to throw him off. He doubled the next hole before settling down again. But his game unraveled on 17, with its tricky island green.

“I just decelerated,” he said of an iron that trickled into trouble. “I didn’t have any faith in the shot and duffed it into the water.”

He ended the day with an 83, weighted down by four bogeys and four doubles.

“The thing I had the most confidence in let me down,” he explained. Despite bumpy greens and a dry course, he pointed out, others managed decent scores.

“It was me,” he said.

Smith started the second day on number 10 and seemed on his way to a strong round before facing 17 and 18—the former being a particular bugaboo.

The mini TPC-style layout challenged most of the state championship field. Golfers averaged 6.1 on the par five. The hole caused over 100 plus par scores and ranked as the course’s third most difficult.

Smith tallied an eight on the par five, and the experience dogged his game for the next few holes. Still, he shaved four strokes from his Tuesday score and finished with an 84. Heeg had a moment of brilliance on nine, sticking it on the green and sinking his putt. But he found a tree with his approach on 18 and recorded an 85 for the round.

Caleb Reuter struggled in the wind on Tuesday but recovered in the final round, breaking 100 in the process of carving nine strokes from his score.

O’Hare arrived in Kearney as if he owned the course. Through the first 11 holes he kept up a steady pace. But his round fell apart on 12—one of the five most difficult holes—as the winds kicked up. Three straight doubles, followed by three bogeys dropped him to an 87.

On Wednesday his games was less assured from the start. Fortunately his trouble spots came at random, and he recovered neatly each time.

“I tried to duplicate it,” he laughed, comparing Wednesday’s round to his opener. “Today the wind was down about 20 miles per hour—that was nice.”

O’Hare, Greenwood and Smith played their final rounds as Longhorns. Their high school career was filled with success and state appearances.

Although they anticipated a top three finish, Greenwood said, “you can’t be too upset.”