Hawks find tough greens at South Hill

WATERLOO – It seemed to take the Central Lee boys' golf team 36 holes to figure out the tricky and quick greens at South Hill Golf Club, but on the 36th hole, the final hole of the two-day meet, they figured it out.
Carson Morrison and Caleb Larson each one-putted on the 18th green for par. Morrison sank a 20 footer as Larson was coming up the fairway, then Larson sank a putt from about 25 feet away to wrap up the Hawks' two-day Class 2A IHSAA state golf meet.
The Hawks finished seventh overall, one place better than their 2025 appearance.
Larson, a senior, led the Hawks with the 22nd overall best score at 12-over 156. He shot a 77 on Tuesday and a 79 on Wednesday.  Central Lee finished with 324 on Tuesday and improved by 10 strokes on Wednesday with a 314 for 638. The Hawks were just eight strokes out of the top 5.
“It’s a good way to end. I wanted to end on the 18th hole on the second day of state and that’s what we did,” Larson said. “We got to state, that’s the main thing. We didn’t place where we wanted to, but we got here, so that’s what counts.”
Larson said the squad is set up to be right back at state again in 2027, which would be the third year in a row.
Larson shot a nice 2-over going out on Friday and then had three straight pars to start the back 9, but ran into a bogey, double bogey, par, double bogey stretch at 13-16. He had a birdie four on 17 and parred 18 to wrap up Day 1. His 25-footer on 18 would have been a three, but he had to take a stroke on an unplayable lie in the fairway.
He just missed a birdie two on the par 3 12th hole when his chip from 10-feet off just missed on the high side.
Larson will be attending the University of Nebraska where he will try to walk on to the Big Ten squad, and will be majoring in Golf Course management.
Junior Carson Morrison was two shots behind Larson and grabbed a tie for 25th. He shot a 41-40 on Tuesday to finish nine over headed into day 2. He had one birdie on the 362-yard par 4 7th hole on day 1.
Morrison would cut four strokes on Wednesday and played fairly consistently, just four bogeys, one double bogey, and a birdie four on the 593-yard par 5 3rd hole. He finished with a 158.
Morrison agreed the greens were tough, resulting in a lot of long putts.
“I’m not a big fan of the course. The greens don’t hold. They are pretty firm, and there are a lot of trees out there, so if you’re not in the fairway, there’s some trouble,” he said.

“I had a lot of those longer putts for par today. I did make one for birdie and that was big. Overall, it was a really fun season. We had a lot of success and we should be pretty happy with how it went.”
Senior Mylan Lowenberg shot a 7-over 79 on Wednesday and finished with +17 161, good enough for 28th overall. He said the Hawks haven’t ever faced several of the teams.
“Honestly, the goal was top 5. Some teams came here we haven’t heard of and they absolutely destroyed us,” he said.
Lowenberg said his short game and the approaches weren’t good on Tuesday because the greens wouldn’t hold.
“We found those misses on the greens today and knew where we could miss, so we all scored a little better today,” he said. “The front was a little more open than the back and the greens were very firm. But they were good conditions otherwise.”
He said the season was a success and he was going to miss playing with the Hawks. He plans to attend Northwest Iowa Community College and study power line maintenance.
“I am going to miss this. I absolutely love it,” he said.
Junior Carter Jones ran into a 13-over par 85 on Tuesday, but dialed it in a bit on Wednesday with an 81 for a 166..  He was probably the bluntest about the firm course and how he managed it over the two days.
“I hope I never play here again,” he said with a small smile.
“Honestly, I was just playing bad. I don’t really have anything else to blame it on. But it’s over and I’m just looking forward to playing again next year. I think it’s a pretty cool course, but the greens are so hard when it’s this hot. I couldn’t get anything to stop and the putts were going so fast.
“I putted pretty well toward the end today, but that’s where my problem was and that’s where a lot of the bogeys came from. Just bad putting. I don’t think we played quite as good as we wanted to these last couple days, but we’re all happy we made it and we had fun doing it.”
Junior Kaden Swan shot a 19 over 163 (81-82). He had six bogeys and two doubles on Wednesday and seven bogeys and just one double on Tuesday and finished tied for 34th.
Freshman Hayden Welch came in tied for 58th place with a 172. Welch got stung with three double bogeys in each round and 15 total pars.