Coaches would prefer two-day tourneys

Rosemount girls' golf coach Barry Wallin, an 18-year veteran, this spring is experiencing the winds of change: a one-day, winner-take-all section tournament. In the past, the Irish have been in sections where a two-day tournament format is used.

"We would really like to have a two-day event [in Class 3A, Section 3]," Wallin said. "And in the coaches meeting, it will be a high, high priority.

"A two-day format gives you a true representation of who the best team is; the real cream of the crop."

Rosemount and the other 10 schools in the section will tee off for all the marbles Thursday at Phalen Golf Club.

In a one-day event, any single team can get hot and make it to state. With a two-day event, a team has the time to get rolling over 36 holes.

That will be the case for Burnsville in Class 3A, Section 2. The Blaze for the first time will take part in a two-day format.

That tournament begins Thursday at Oakdale Golf Club in Hutchinson, with the first-day qualifiers returning May 27 for the finals.

"I'm absolutely in favor of the two-day," Burnsville coach Alan VanWyngarden said. "We tried for years when we were in Section 6 to get that to happen and we couldn't get the athletic directors to go along with it."

One reason for some sections holding one-day events, Wallin said, is cost and time lost in the classroom. But he said that is minimal.

VanWyngarden agreed.

"We miss so much school anyway," he said. "If that was the problem, I've always said we'd just drop one tournament during the regular season to even it out.

"A two-day [section] tournament is the way to go."

Both teams finished the regular season among the state's leaders.

Rosemount compiled a scoring average of 343 for the season, tops among scores turned into the Minnesota Golf Coaches Association. Burnsville was not far behind, finishing with a team average of 346.

The Class 3A state tournament, which is a two-day event, begins June 3 at Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids.

BRIAN STENSAAS