By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Monday, June 4 and Tuesday, June 5, Merrill’s Russell Dettmering traveled to the state golf tournament held at University Ridge. With this being Russell’s first appearance at state he had high hopes, and was able to finish in fifth place with a total score of 146 (+2) for the two day event.
On day one of the tournament, Russell shot a clean two under par 70 to be one shot out of the lead. His day was punctuated by dropping a 35 foot putt for eagle on his 11th hole of the day. On day two, he remained solid making the turn at even par 36, and at that point was tied for the lead in the tournament. By days end, a back nine 40 and a final round 76 earned him a top five finish. Merrill golf coach Joe Mertens calls what Russell was able to accomplish “An outstanding feat and a glimpse of things to come for him.”
Coach Mertens went further into detail when talking about Dettmering’s game saying, “Russell is a powerful player, long off the tee, precise with his irons and has an excellent touch near the green. The University Ridge is a tough golf course. Russell played very well for 34 holes and was able to overpower the par 5’s with 330 plus yard drives and irons to the greens.”
“Those of us that know Russell’s game had a sense that he would do well at state and have considered him to be a top 5 player statewide for his age,” adds Mertens “and now he proved himself to be just that with two more years of high school competition still remaining. Knowing Russell and the competitor he is, he definitely wanted more, he wanted to win, maybe next year.”
Russell had a great year and will look to follow it up with more great golf next year.