Snohomish Golf Course, which annually hosts the 4A District 2 Tournament, is known as a relatively challenging layout. But on Tuesday and Wednesday it turned into a beast of a challenge, thanks to Mother Nature.
Tuesday’s first-day action featured howling winds with gusts of up to 25 miles per hour and Wednesday’s action, which determined who would earn a berth into the 4A state golf tournament in May, was played in a steady rain.
Redmond High golfers, most of whom were making their first appearance at the districts tournament, struggled on the first day and finished a distant fifth in the team portion of the event, which consisted of the top five scores from Tuesday for each team.
Woodinville standout Jarrett Foote, who incidentally works for Redmond coach Chris Zimmerman at Inglewood Golf Club in Kenmore, ran away with the title shooting 71-68 for an impressive five-under-par 139 total, helping the Falcons to a team victory with a stroke total of 396. Eastlake freshman phenom Li Wang took second with 74-72-146. Redmond’s team captain, junior Charlie Mroz, who rallied from a horrible start, earned a third-straight state berth in a playoff.
“It was tough, but there were some good scores,” said Redmond coach Chris Zimmerman. “(Wednesday) it rained off and on most of the day, and got real heavy towards the end of the day. But Jarrett (Foote) played great… there were some good rounds to be had out there. It was pretty wet, but nothing any different than you’d expect.”
Redmond sophomore Oliver Rudnicki was leading the team after day one with a opening-round 78, but hit an unfortunate streak on the closing nine holes to miss the state cut by the slimmest of margins.
“Oliver had a stretch of bogeys on the back nine and ended up missing (state) by one shot,” Zimmerman recalled. “But they’re sophomores and freshmen, so I look for things to keep getting better and better.”
The story of the tournament was the tenacity and resilience of Mroz.
Mroz’s first hole of the tournament was a triple bogey 7 and had a score of 45 heading into the back nine. He finished his first round with a nine-over par-81. But experience, pure guts, and a lot of skill helped Mroz climb back up the leaderboard.
“Charlie made it a little more interesting than he needed to,” Zimmerman said, “But I was so proud of him to come back and shoot even par on the back nine — 45 for him, is like shooting a million. He could have packed it in.”
Zimmerman, who has been attending the district tournament at Snohomish every year since 1990, anticipated the state cut to be at 156, which gave room for Mroz to shoot 75 or better on Wednesday to earn a spot.
The coach’s heart started to beat a little faster when he met with Mroz on his way to the 10th tee, realizing that he shot 41 on the front nine.
“I was like, ‘Oh man, he needs to shoot lights out on the back.’ He needs to shoot 34.”
Thanks to the wet conditions, other players faded down the home stretch and Mroz found himself in a five-man playoff for the final three state berths.
After hitting a great drive to the par-4 fourth in a downpour, Mroz hit his approach on the fringe and was facing a 25-footer that he needed to two-putt to punch his ticket to state.
“He hit a great lag putt to like a foot, a double-breaker, under that pressure it was a phenomenal putt,” Zimmerman said. “Just like he has all year, he played it solid, and he’s going. He’s been there, and he can handle (the pressure). Now that he’s made it to state, it’s a clean slate. He can come in there and do some damage.
Mroz’s state berth takes a little bit of the sting away from the Mustangs’ struggles at the district tournament, but Zimmerman made it clear that his top priority next season will be to take the districts team crown.
“Our mission for the next year is to win districts,” he said. “It was Jarrett’s turn to win this tournament, but next year, I think it will be Charlie’s turn to win.”
