Ryder Heikila and Mackayla Waltee led the way with some of their lowest scores of the year to help the Aberdeen Bobcats golf team pull out the victory against Hoquiam 212-217 on Wednesday at the Highland Golf Course in Cosmopolis.
Hiekila shot the lowest score of the match with 47 strokes while Waltee was right behind her with a round of 48.
Both golfers were looking for some consistency off the tee and were able to avoid the trees that lined the narrow fairways to contribute to one of Aberdeen’s best performances of the year.
“We’ve been waiting for the girls to put it all together and I think they did it today,” Aberdeen head coach Dan Sundstrom said. “We had two girls in the 40s and they haven’t been close to the 40s all season, so we were really excited about that.”
The Grizzlies on the other hand, had some troubles with a short game that plagued them after hitting some encouraging drives and decent chip shots.
Hoquiam head coach Patty Sundstrom said she expects her team to take strokes off its game moving forward.
“Even though Aberdeen beat us, we looked better out there and lowered our score from the other day,” she said. “We dropped 12 strokes from our last match so we’re on the right track.”
The Grizzlies benefitted from some encouraging performances from Sandra Parks and Megan Folkers, both of whom had identical scores of 52, largely by avoiding too many mistakes on the putting green.
In most sports, Hoquiam-Aberdeen matchups normally produce strong emotions on both sides, but the friendliness of this rivalry produces a different vibe when these teams tee off.
“They sort of encourage each other which is nice. Its not always that with a rivalry but with the golf season it really is,” said Patty Sundstrom.
Patty, who is the wife of fellow head coach Dan Sundstrom, has been confined to a walking boot while she recovers from an injury.
Unable to walk the course, she followed behind her athletes in a golf cart to give them pointers, different from her typical routine where she would normally be squaring off against her husband in a round of golf while their teams competed.
With the couple’s own rivalry match postponed until next year, Dan Sundstrom got an opportunity to watch his team and enjoyed the extra level of focus they brought to the course.
“A lot of times its playing above how you regularly play just because it is against the Grizzlies,” he said. “It’s always nice to beat the Grizzlies but it’s all in jest with my wife. Usually, whoever wins buys dinner.”
With the rivalry match out of the way, both teams will get back to their league schedules. The Bobcats will take on Tumwater at home on at 3:30 p.m. on Friday while Hoquiam will face another rival from the Harbor when they tee off against Monte at 3:30 on Tuesday.
Dan Sundstrom was glad to see his team having fun on the links before the final stretch of the regular season.
“I asked one of my players how things were going and she told me she was having a great time,” he said. “It’s just good to go out there and see the girls have fun with each other.”
Results
Aberdeen (212) — Ryder Hiekkila 47, MacKayla Waltee 48, Katie Lewis 54, Mercy Johnson 63
Hoquiam (217) — Sandra Parks 52, Megan Folkers 52, Bailey Smith 56, McKenna Boone 57.
