In a field featuring multiple state champion golfers, it was the windy conditions that provided the biggest challenge during the South Dakota Golf Association Sanford Tour golf tournament on Monday.

Aberdeen’s Olivia Braun and Jayden Antonen of Sioux Falls navigated the Moccasin Creek Country Club course to earn individual championships.

Braun, who shot a 75 to win the girls’ title by six strokes, said playing her home course was definitely beneficial.

“I think it’s helpful, because you just have to think about the wind,” Braun said. “You don’t have to think about any other things, because you know where to hit it, so I would say it’s an advantage.”

Braun said she used the first couple of holes to figure out the wind, but it was still a challenging round.

“There was a lot of up and downs today,” Braun said. “The wind was pretty tough, blowing really hard.”

Braun had a two-stroke lead early on only to see it slip away with two rough holes to fall behind by two strokes midway through the round.

“I had two doubles in a row, which was pretty frustrating,” Braun said, “but I got it back together and went par, birdie, I think on the next two holes.”

The win was Braun’s third SDGA tour event so far this summer.

“I’ve had a really successful summer,” Braun said, “and hopefully I’ll keep it going.”

While Braun had plenty of margin for error, the boys’ race was a photo finish as there was a three-way tie for first forcing a playoff hole between Antonen, Gavin Colson of Onida, and Groton’s Brevin Fliehs after each shot a round of 77.

Antonen wasted little time taking advantage on the first shot of the playoff hole as he hit a drive to the left edge of the fairway, while his foes got into the hazard on the right side of the 10th hole.

The junior to be at O’Gorman placed his tee to the far right of the tee box and hit a well-place shot to set the tone for the playoff.

“There’s hazard on the right, so if you go on the right side of the tee box you open up the left side,” Antonen said, “and I kind of favor that side.”

Not only that, but Antonen did not use a driver to hit his first shot.

“Well, my miss with drivers is right, there’s a hazard right and this hole’s not long enough to need a driver,” Antonen said, “so knock a 3-wood out there and put it in the fairway.”

From there, it was just a matter of staying out of trouble to close out the victory.

“I’ve only been in one of these and I lost it,” Antonen said of the playoff. “You don’t need a birdie to win, you’ve just got to beat the rest of the guys. It doesn’t matter what hole it is, you’ve just got to beat the rest of the guys out there.”

Antonen said the gusty conditions were definitely challenging out on the course.

“It’s just tough. You have to know when to play what shots,” he said. “You make a bogey here and there when it’s 30-mile-an-hour winds. You got to know it’s coming. You’re not going to go out here and shoot under par in these conditions.”

Colson, the defending State B champion, was pleased with his playoff drive, despite it landing in a water hazard and forcing him to play perfectly the rest of the way.

“It was probably my best drive all day, it just didn’t do what everything else was doing today, a big draw,” Colson said. “But I struck it well, but just a little bit right; leaked right on me.”

From there Colson hit two stellar shots, the last of which came within inches of going in the hole before he ended up taking second.

Colson finished his 18-hole round more than an hour before the other golfers and had to sit around and await the outcome, not knowing what would happen.

“It’s tough. You’re sitting there forever and all of a sudden you’re back in it for the win,” Colson said. “It’s tough. It would have been easier coming in being the last guy to tie it, but it didn’t happen.”

That distinction belonged to Fliehs, who basically finished up regulation and went right to the playoff.

“I think it’s easier when I don’t have much time to think, so I can keep on going with the golf,” Fliehs said.

Fliehs golfed the same course last week and finished with a better score, but was more pleased with his round the second time considering the conditions.

“Definitely was a little windier today,” Fliehs said, “so the scores weren’t as good as last week.”

Fliehs, a key member of the Groton baseball team, will be right back on the diamond again tonight against Watertown. He said he gets used to jumping back and forth between sports.

“I’ve been doing it for a while,” Fliehs said, “so once I’m done with golf I start thinking about baseball, and the other way around, too.”

Another defending state champion in the field on Monday was Watertown’s Brynn Roehrich, who won the State B title playing for Clark-Willow Lake last month.

Roehrich got off to a rough start before making a major adjustment.

“I hit my driver quite far for being a girl and it was getting me in trouble, so I decided after about hole six, I was going to put that in my bag and not take it back out,” Roehrich said. “I kept it in my bag the rest of the round and was teeing off with a four driving iron.”

In fact, for a short period of time, Roehrich wasn’t necessarily pleased with any of her clubs.

“I wanted to put them up for sale there for a little bit,” Roehrich said.

The upcoming sophomore decided to not only change her club selection, but also her attitude and it made a big difference as she bounced back to have a solid round.

“I just kind of told myself that I did my important stuff during the golf season and finished with a state title,” Roehrich said, “and so, I told myself that it’s just for fun and I get to play against a lot of great girls that I don’t get to play against in the normal season, and so I just take it as a learning experience.”

Roehrich finished strong and will take some momentum into the next Sanford Tour event on Monday in Pierre.

“It was a little helpful after I was on the ninth hole and I birdied that hole,” Roehrich said, “after shooting a horrendous front nine, that definitely helped going into the back nine.”

To see Monday’s complete tournament results, click on the following link:

https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/4522481