Jul. 19—GRAND FORKS — The North Dakota Golf Association Match Play Championship kicked off Friday at the Grand Forks Country Club, and two of the top four golfers lost in the first round of match play.
The second-ranked golfer, Minot’s Justin Redding, and No. 4 Max Palmer of Bottineau, the North Dakota Class B state champion and a finalist for N.D. Mr. Golf, both lost in the first round of open championship competition.
Redding shot 2-under in the qualifying round to earn his No. 2 seed, while Palmer shot 1-under to carry his No. 4 rank.
Gehrig Geiss, a golfer at Jamestown, beat Redding, and Geiss will face Grand Forks’ Carson Skarperud Saturday morning. Skarperud will golf at UND in the fall.
Bemidji State’s Logan Schoepp, ranked No. 29, beat Palmer. Schoepp will face UND’s Zach Hinschberger in the second round Saturday morning.
Hinschberger faced Grand Forks native Cole Hanson, who
switched from playing college hockey to college golf
at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., in the first round. Hanson shot 3-over in the qualifying round.
Duane Wages, the highest-rank Grand Forks player at No. 5, advanced to the second round. Wages is a volunteer assistant coach with UND men’s golf, and he golfed collegiately at Idaho and UND.
Top-ranked Evan Booth, a Fargo South graduate and University of Mary golfer, advanced. He will face Bemidji State’s Koby Kuenzel Saturday morning.
UND golfers Nate Peyerl and Grayson Wetch also advanced. Peyerl beat Grand Forks’ Saylor Kuenzel to advance.
Wetch beat Marion Hernandez in the first round.
Grand Forks Red River’s Ross Koerner, ranked eighth, beat Carson Harrington to advance.
