Zack Twiest studiously follows the ball as it winds its way toward the hole. Twiest, a junior, is only the third golfer from Cook County High School to qualify for the state high school golf tournament. This year’s two-day meet was held at Pebble Creek golf course in Becker, MN.
Cook County junior Zack Twiest didn’t finish as high as he would have hoped at the state golf meet, but the fact he made it is quite an achievement. After all, with its short summers, abbreviated springs and sometimes little or no fall, northern Minnesota isn’t known as an incubator for scratch golfers.
Twiest finished 88th place in the two-day meet held at Pebble Creek Golf course in Becker, MN.
“Zack had a decent first day, shooting 84,” said head coach Scott Steinbach. “But he struggled the second day and shot 98. It was really, really windy. It was a tough day to play,” added Steinbach.
For most of the year the Vikings boys’ squad was led by senior Kip Sande. In fact, Sande won the Polar League conference title as well as placing first at the team’s home meet on May 21. Twiest, however, was almost always just a couple of strokes back, and at the section 7A meet he qualified while Sande came up just short.
Zack is only the third golfer to represent CCHS at State. The first was Warren “Dinky” Pederson who finished third, right behind current CCHS head golf coach Scott Steinbach (who graduated from Bagley High School) in 1980. More recently Andy Smith represented CCHS at State three years ago and is now on his college’s golf team.
At Pebble Creek each golfer played 36 holes, 18 holes per day. Twiest finished with a total of 182.
“Zack really improved this year. He shot an 80 on the River and Canyon portion of Superior National, and he finished third at conference, not far behind Kip. Anytime a kid goes to state it’s a great experience. For Zack it was a great learning experience, especially that second day. It will be great to see how he does in the future. It’s been a good year. We had a good bunch of kids. It was a lot of fun and very rewarding,” said Steinbach.
Due to budget cutbacks golf has been cut from Cook County High School sports for next year. But several parents are already hoping to find a way to keep the sport alive and, with any luck and a few good bounces, Twiest will be back at state and take revenge on second day jitters.
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