Blue Hawk golfers played the Tobacco Valley tournament in Eureka last week, at Indian Springs Tuesday and at the Wilderness Club Wednesday, walking away much more battle-tested and tournament-ready in the end.

This week, the Hawks were set to host the Gary Thompson Invitational at friendly River’s Bend Tuesday outside of Thompson Falls but results were not available at press time.

Thompson Falls will complete regular season action at the Old Works Invitational in Anaconda Thursday. Coach Doree Thilmony said part of the team will be dropped off to play in a JV tourney in Deer Lodge that day. The Western B tourney will also be played in Anaconda May 12-13, with the State B in Billings May 19-20.

The Tobacco Valley Invitational proved to be a growing experience for the young Hawks, Thilmony said, adding that the golfers also walked a lot of miles in the two days.

Two-sports star Aubrey Baxter led the Hawks by winning fourth overall with the girls, carding a 92 at Indian Springs followed up with a 98 at the Wilderness Club for a two-day total of 190. Aubrey went on to run, jump and throw in a variety of events in the Bigfork Invitational track meet Saturday (see other story).

Senior Solveig Nygaard carded rounds of 91 and 102 to finish seventh overall for the Lady Hawks in Eureka.

With the Hawk boys, freshman Tristan Kelly shot an 86 Tuesday and a 93 Wednesday to come in at 179 for sixteenth place, Blake Shusterman shot 95 twice for a 190 total and 23rd place and Nathan Baxter, another two-sports Baxter athlete who doubles up in track and field, shot 97 and 109 for 206 and 32nd place.

Thilmony said the tournament, particularly playing the Wilderness Club course, was good for her players. “(The Wilderness Club) is known for its long links style fairways, has multiple fairway bunkers and also has greens surrounded by bunkers. It’s a challenging course that makes good golfers look bad. I thought our golfers all did very well at this course.”

Thilmony said that all said and done, the testing Tobacco Valley tourney was a good one for the Hawks.

“The golfers hiked a lot of miles golfing in the two packed days of competition,” she said. “With the late night coming back and the amount of school they had been missing for golf, track, music, and any other activity you can fit into spring, they opted out of the St. Regis Tournament.”

The Hawks were originally set to play in the Trestle Creek tourney at St. Regis Thursday but that was before the Tobacco Valley tourney was moved to last week.

Looking ahead to the Gary Thompson Invite, Thilmony is happy to welcome the long-time coach to the proceedings. The Hawks famously won Thompson Falls’ only State B golf team title under the masterful coaching and guidance of Gary Thompson back in 2015.

“We look forward to having Gary back out with the team and hosting the competition,” Thilmony said.

    PLAYING THE GREEN at the Wilderness Club course outside of Eureka Wednesday, Tristan Kelly carded 179 for the two days at the Tobacco Valley tournament last week. (courtesy photo)