Albert Lea boys golf in seventh after day one in section tournament

Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Albert Lea boys&8217; golf team made the first day cut in the Section 1AAA two-day tournament as it fired a 329 to place seventh.

The score put them in a pack of five teams all separated by three or fewer strokes.

However the Tigers still trail leader Lakeville North who shot a 301 and second place Austin who had a 313.

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&8220;As expected, there&8217;s a fair amount of team bunched together,&8221; Albert Lea head coach Riley Worth said. &8220;We can still salvage a third place finish.&8221;

After a 321 netted them a second place finish in the Big Nine Conference tournament Monday, it would have put them in fourth place sandwiched between Lakeville South, who shot a 320, and Owatonna, who had a 322.

Grant Stadheim led the way for the Tigers with his 77 after he turned around a slow start.

Stadheim birdied two of the last three holes to break 80 on the day.

Tyler Brackey followed with a solid 82, but couldn&8217;t seem to get in a groove.

&8220;He never really got anything going,&8221; Worth said. &8220;He kept his head in it. The nice thing about Tyler is that bogeys are his bad days, he doesn&8217;t blow up.&8221;

Tyler Haaland also turned in an 82 for Albert Lea in an unusual fashion.

He shot a 39 on the front side and started the backside much like he did in the conference championship &8212; going nine over par on the first three holes &8212; instead he only went six over on the first three holes and ratcheted his game considerably.

He followed a double bogey on No. 12 with a par, eagled 15 and finished even par over the last three holes.

&8220;After Monday it was nice to see him stop the bleeding,&8221; Worth said.

Sam Matheson and Mike Falk had a pair of 88s for the Tigers and Casey Marka finished with a 94.

Albert Lea advanced to the second day for the first time under Worth.

&8220;It feels good to play on the second day,&8221; Worth said. &8220;We get to have a team practice.&8221;