The 2023 Middle Border Conference Girl’s Golf season got off to a blustery start on Thursday with a scramble at Pheasant Hills Golf Course in Hammond.

Teams played through adversity all afternoon during the nine-hole scramble. Pheasant Hills is a shorter course, but it’s one whose difficulty plays up on windy days with how wide open it is.

“When it’s windy out here, this course is a bear,” Chad Salay, coach of the Prescott Cardinals, said. “It’s actually one of the easiest courses that we play, and it’s one that we score the best on usually. When it’s windy it’s brutal, though, and it becomes one of the harder courses. Today’s not going to be one of our best scores.”

As Carson Huppert, coach of the Ellsworth Panthers, points out, it makes things harder for everybody equally.

“Everyone plays it,” Huppert said. “The scores are probably a little higher than they would be if it wasn’t so windy, but we still had three girls go in the 40’s today, which hasn’t happened for us in a few years, so we’re looking good.”

Prescott took first place with a team score of 171. There were only four total birdies, and the Cardinals were responsible for three of them. Lydia Faren, Layla Salay and Gabbi Matzek all got one. It was Matzek who led the way for the Cardinals, though, taking second overall with a score of 41.

“It wasn’t my best round, but it was alright. I had a double bogey on hole 8 and a couple other bogeys that I shouldn’t have had,” Matzek said. “I should usually be able to do better here, but I had some good drives today and some good approach shots too.”

Altogether Prescott had five players shoot in the 40’s.

Ellsworth took third place with a team score of 196, narrowly losing out on second place to St. Croix Central’s score of 192. Lexi Marks led the way for the Panthers as she tied for fifth place with a score of 43.

“It was very windy. I didn’t have a bunch of great shots, but I didn’t have a bunch of bad shots either,” Marks said. “My short game and my drives were pretty good. I shot a 43, so that could have been better obviously, but I finished pretty good. There’s just some things I need to clean up.”

The Panthers and Cardinals head to Princeton Valley Golf Course on Monday for their next meet where both teams hope they can improve after this gusty 9-hole scramble. Matzek says she wants to focus on her short game over the weekend, whereas Marks said she wants more practice on the fairway.

“I'm going to try to work on some feel shots - like the 60-yard shots and up - so I can put those closer,” Marks said.

Despite some turnover, the Prescott Cardinals enter the season as the heavy favorite in their division having won three consecutive Middle Border titles in a row.

“We lost three of our seniors, our top two players and our number four player,” Matzek said. “Ava Salay, obviously, was the number one in the state last year.”

It remains to be seen how much of an impact losing three of their top four players will have, but hopes are high for the Cardinals.

“We've definitely lost some big players, but we've got some talent coming back,” Salay said. “We got preseason ranked number one in the state. That’s probably a little bit of carryover from last year, but we're still putting up scores that are top five in Wisconsin.”

Prescott has won both of their invitationals so far this summer, most recently winning the Trempealeau Mountain Golf Invite by a massive 55 strokes with all five golfers finishing in the top 11.

Ellsworth has also had an influx of talent this offseason, but on the other side of the ball. The Panthers added two new coaches.

“Kayley Bayer was one of our seniors last year who graduated, she’s now one of our coaches. Hope Tiffany is the other one. She graduated from Baldwin and went to state in golf, and she was a three-time all conference player,” Huppert said. “They bring a girl’s perspective, which helps, and they just bring something new to the table, something the players haven’t heard before.”

Both girls golf teams head to Princeton Valley Golf Course in Eau Claire on Monday for their next meet. Tee off is at 4 p.m.