Patrick Hastings completes the one-stroke comeback to give BSM boys its second golf championship since 2003
Patrick Hastings sank a 3-foot putt to send his Benilde-St. Margaret’s teammates into a championship roar on the final hole on June 12 at Bunker Hills Golf Club in Coon Rapids securing the Class AAA title by one stroke.
The Red Knights shot a 596, one stroke ahead of Waconia (597), three strokes ahead of Maple Grove (599) and four strokes ahead of Rosemount (600) in what was a stellar comeback.
Patrick Hastings, a sophomore, led BSM finishing seventh overall with a 145, sharing the spot with Waconia’s Riley Baisch. Hastings carded rounds of 1-over 73 and even-par 72 to pace the team. He had two bogeys on the opening nine holes and closed out the first day with a 1-under 36 including a pair of birdies to go with one bogey. Hastings fired three birdies off the front nine holes on the second day for a 2-under 34 before keeping his composure with seven pars on the final nine holes of the tourney.
BSM senior Henry Trent and junior captain Carter Callan tied for 16th place at 150 with three other golfers. Trent shot rounds of 76 and 74 while Callan shot rounds of 75. Trent had five birdies on the two rounds. Callan carded three birdies with two coming on the front nine holes of the second round with a 1-under 35.
Sophomore Braydon Pulcanio tied for 21st with rounds of 76 and 75 and senior Blake Steensland tied for 31st with rounds of 76 and 78 to wrap up the scoring.
Pulcanio put together a 1-over 37 on the back nine holes to finish the opening round strong with pars on 8-of-9 holes.
BSM was fifth after the first round, shooting a 300, six shots back of Maple Grove who led with a 294 Rosemount was second (297), Waconia was third (298) and Alexandria was fourth (299), making June 12 a genuine uphill battle given the uncertain weather conditions with rain and lightning.
“We were down six shots after the first day and that’s a tough position to be in,” BSM coach Dave Herbst said.
Being fourth, meant the Red Knights would start on the much more difficult west course while the three leaders opened on the east course.
Herbst was initially discouraged by the idea of playing the more difficult nine holes early. “In the end, I felt it helped us and was a huge advantage because we didn’t play really well and were only down 6-7 shots. They still had to play that tough section. It pumped them all up and got them going.
“All of a sudden I look up and with three holes left we are tied with Waconia and Maple Grove completely fell off the map.”
The team title came down to Hastings making that final putt on the final hole.
Herbst was right by Hastings and his playing partner on the walk down the fairway as the players chatted about anything but what was transpiring on the course in the most pressure-filled conclusion possible.
“Patrick is just as cool as a cucumber and once I heard them talk about colleges, I just tried to stay away from them – let him do his thing.”
Hastings, a sophomore, put his approach 20 feet above the hole before his first putt stopped within three feet.
“If he sinks that putt we win. No one said anything but he knew it was big,” Herbst said of the clinching putt. “He knocked it in and the boys went crazy since he just won the championship for us.”
The second day began with the Red Knights trailing four strokes through three holes before the lightning delay.
“We didn’t have a chance to warm up again,” Herbst said. “So it took us three holes to wake up and within three more holes of the restart we were down nine shots. I thought we were done.”
Herbst joined each golfer on the tee box for the start of the back nine holes, trying to motivate them to push to the end. “I told them to put the rally caps on because we needed to play good golf to make up some ground.”
Herbst said the group came together as a team with everyone doing their part to succeed without one or two standouts leading.
The team used the full 10-golfer roster throughout the season because Herbst believes the golfers are students first and tests and classwork take precedence ahead of a golf meet. “We had several times when our better kids had a test and so it was the next man up who got to play,” he said. “Everyone got to play close to half the matches. Everyone pulled their weight. All of them were pretty close to the same skill level. We would have a bunch of guys at 1-2-3-4 over par and figured we would blow the other scores away.”
Herbst was part of several championship teams in hockey including the 1973 state championship Hibbing hockey team and went on to play at Wisconsin.
“I told Carter what we used to do to build up the team and if we would win a state title – you guys would be lifelong friends,” Herbst said. “Carter would make sure they were all hanging out together either going Carter’s boat on Lake Minnetonka or grabbing dinner at Culver’s after a meet to eat together.”
Despite repeating a tourney title at St. Cloud and winning a Hill-Murray meet at Indian Hills, Herbst felt the team’s best rounds were ahead of them. “We were waiting for them to put it all together and they did at sections to beat Edina,” he said as they beat Edina by 14 strokes. “The guys said ‘Congrats but coach, we can play better.’ I said they have my attitude, very competitive, and we’re going to win the whole thing and they had the confidence to do it.”
St. Louis Park
St. Louis Park sophomore Kayleigh Bishop shared 41st place with fellow sophomore St. Paul Como Park’s Hattie Hemthong 165s during the two-day, 36-hole tournament at Bunker Hills.
Bishop opened with a round of 85 before shaving five strokes for a closing-round 80 on the par-72 course which measured 5,605 yards.
Bishop birdied the 405-yard par-5 hole four both days adding a birdie on the 312-yard par-4 13th hole during the second round on June 12. She added pars on 15 of the 36 holes.
Bishop opened the tournament with a 3-over 39 off the front nine and closed her appearance with matching 40s on the front and back.
She was six strokes off a top-20 finish as Owatonna sophomore Carmen Jirele beat out Maple Grove senior Amelia Morton by one stroke for the state title with a 142-143.
Jirele had seven birdies while posting rounds of 69 and 73 while Morton carded rounds of 71 and 72 with seven birdies. Simley senior standout and Ms. Minnesota Golf award winner Reese McCauley was three strokes back with rounds of 74 and 71.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s sophomore Alyssa Raghuveer tied for 16th place with rounds of 78 and 79.
Raghuveer opened with one birdie on the front and back nine holes while carding a 4-over 40 and 2-over 38 on the first day. She followed up on the second day with another 40 off the front before closing with a 3-over 39 to finish her tournament. She birdied the 430-yard par-5 11th hole.
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