Dalton Butler chips onto the 14th green during the first round of the state tournament at Montreux Golf Course on Monday.
RENO — Montreux Country Club is a tough track even when the weather is nice.
On a windy day, it turns into a beast as the best high school golfers in Nevada found out Monday afternoon on the first day of the NIAA State Championships.
Not one golfer in the 52-player field broke par, and only 10 managed to break 80.
Carson High’s Dalton Butler shot an 11-over-par 83 and finds himself tied for 15th place. Butler tees off at 9:20 a.m. today in the second and final round of the 36-hole tournament.
Bishop Manogue leads the eight-team event at 414, a scant three shots ahead of Arbor View. Palo Verde is third at 419 and Coronado is fourth at 421. Green Valley is fifth at 438 and Galena is sixth at 440.
Palo Verde’s Jack Trent was the first-day leader at 3-over-par 75. He leads Arbor View’s Sam Dickey by one shot and Bishop Gorman’s Owen Rosebeck by two. Foothill’s Andrew Chu and Coronado’s Jalen Hodges round out the top five at 78 and 79, respectively.
Butler failed to card a birdie during his round.
“It was blowing hard up there,” said coach Rod Butler. “A couple of guys posted good scores, but 10th through 30th were 10-over-par or worse. He only hit three or four bad shots. He pretty much had pars and bogeys all the way around. He was misclubbing. He had trouble judging the wind and elevation.
“This course isn’t too tough for the kids, but when you throw the wind out there with the elevation,.. the players don’t have enough experience playing this course. He shot a 41, but it felt like a 36 or 37 the way he hit it.”
NOTES: The weather is expected to be in the 60s for today’s final round.. The wind is expected to gust up to 12 miles per hour....Van Thomas of Arbor View had an interesting round. En route to an 80, he had three birdies and an eagle which wiped out a bogey-bogey-bogey-double bogey beginning. He and three teammates played the back in 38.