Integrity questioned in the Boys Golf regional.

Written Friday June 8th at 10:45 AM

Sometimes there is some controversy that comes in all sports. It looms in every sport where someone comes out of nowhere and gets to the State tournament.

In High School Sports there is no replay like they have in the College and Professional game where a referee can go to a replay to get a another look.

You wouldn't think it will happen in a sport like Golf now but it has.

According to  Dan Stickradt's article he questioned the integrity of three teams that was at the MHSAA Boys Golf regional at Twin Lakes Golf course. In that regional you had one ranked team in the State (Lake Orion) and two others that were ranked (Adams and Bloomfield Hills) during the season that were there and three teams that have little or no history in Boys Golf.

The team that won the regional was New Baltimore Anchor Bay. The Tars shot a 284 which was insane, only the 2010 Novi Detroit Catholic Central team had a lower score than that one of 281 when they won the State title. New Baltimore Anchor Bay was a middle of the pack team in the Macomb Area Conference Blue Division this season, they shot a 322 in the league meet a few weeks ago and was fifth in the Macomb County meet with a 340. Last season, the Tars shot a 342 which was 11th on that same golf course.

I'm thinking there is no way how that the Tars can improve their team score by 38 strokes, that's not even possible.

Another team that has me baffled is L'Anse Creuse. They were the runner up in the regional with 296. The Lancers shot a 313 in the Macomb Area Conference White league meet and a 357 at both the Macomb County Meet and the Evan Gills Invitational. L'Anse Creuse shot a 358 last season at Twin Lakes which was a 62 stroke improvement.

Again I'm thinking how is this possible???

The third team was Fraser. The Ramblers took sixth in the regional with a 313. They were 19th in last season's regional meet with a 373.

Ironically these three teams were paired together in the regional.

Lake Orion took third with a 308 qualified to the State Finals. Adams and Bloomfield Hills both missed out on State berths finished with 310 and 312 respectably.

Twin Lakes is a tough golf course but I wonder was there stat rigging, collusion, or the fact that New Baltimore Anchor Bay, Macomb L'Anse Creuse, and Fraser had great days???

Many coaches protested but it was to no avail. There was no errors on the score sheets or any video evidence of any wrong doing but even if the MHSAA could do anything there hands are strained because even if there is any wrong doings there are no rules in place to disqualify a whole team or do the whole regional over again or have the fourth and fifth place teams go as well to the State meet.

Stickradt did speak to the MHSAA's Cody Inglis to talk about this issue. "Every rule set by the MHSAA and the MIGCA were applied and they could not find any hard evidence of any wrong doing. We have been working with the schools involved over the past several days trying to come up with something, any type of resolution. Integrity is something that is discussed every year and I'm certain it will be discussed this summer" Inglis concluded.

The OAA will be represented this weekend at the State Golf meet with Seaholm (ranked 3rd with 312) and Lake Orion (ranked 4th with 308.) Clarkston whom had a rough day and was ranked 2nd in the State had a tough regional and missed the tournament by one stroke.

Thoughts

I feel really bad for Adams and Bloomfield Hills. They did everything by the book and posted scores that could get them to the State finals but with this controversy they were the teams that missed out going to the tournament.

I think there has to be some changes next season in Golf so this never happens again.

Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest thoughts on this story.

Here is the Soundcloud from the podcast.
https://soundcloud.com/user-539915961/oaa-now-061218

Here is the link to Dan Stickradt's story right here.
http://northoaklandsports.com/2018/06/06/publishers-viewpoint-miracle-on-twin-lakes-links-or-integrity-chipped-off-the-course-you-decide/