Greenhills third after first day of Division 4 golf state finals

Greenhills School sophmore Travis Hindle hits his approach shot to the third hole at Eagle Crest Golf Club in Ypsilanti during Friday's first round of the MHSAA Division 4 Golf Finals. Hindle shot a 76 and is tied for fourth place, one shot ahead of teammate Henry Do. (Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com)

As golfers handed in their scorecards at Eagle Crest Golf Course and watched the leaderboard being updated, two questions seemed to emerge from every gathering of teammates at the Division 4 state golf championships.

"How did Kalamazoo Hackett do?"

"What did Henry Do shoot?"

Do, the 15-year-old Greenhills School freshman who has taken the high school golf scene by storm, and the state's top-ranked team, Hackett, seemed to be on the back of every golfer's mind.

As it turns out, Hackett wasn't the team in the spotlight, nor was Do the Greenhills underclassman with the best card after Friday's first round.

That honor belonged to Travis Hindle.

Hindle, a sophomore, led Greenhills with a 4-over par 76, one stroke ahead of Do and three off the lead of Hackett senior Jack Rider. Even after the stellar round, Hindle couldn't help but focus on the two holes that got away from him.

He double-bogeyed No. 8 and No. 18 and had 16 pars.

"Two bad holes I wish I could erase," Hindle said. "I put it in the trees on eight and had to take an unplayable on 18. ... There were definitely some nerves going."

Hackett is in second position as a team with a score of 310, two off of leader Muskegon West Michigan Christian, the only team with four scorers to shoot in the 70s. Greenhills is in third place with a team score of 321.

The tournament continues with 18 more holes beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday.

More Coverage on MLive.com: Division 1 Scoring | Division 2 Scoring | Division 3 Scoring | Division 4 Scoring

"From what I saw, the scores were pretty high today," Hindle said, before the leaderboard was completely up-to-date. "I think (Saturday), if we play like we did today, we'll be right in it."

Junior Curtis Heisel was Greenhills' third scorer with an 80.

"Not my best, but not terrible. My drives were OK, but anything within 150 yards, I couldn't hit a green," Heisel said, adding that he would try to work out the kinks on the range later in the day. "I was just pulling them left for some reason, it wasn't terrible though."

Mike Hillegonds rounded out the Gryphons' total with an 88. Kevin Doherty's 93 did not count toward the team total, but he is still eligible to score on day two as the top four scores from each team are counted regardless of the previous day's results.

Though most would be beaming about a 77, Do was critical of his play and hopes to improve on Saturday.

"None of my putts were falling, my drives were terrible," said Do, who had one birdie, one double bogey, four bogies and 12 pars. "Missed a lot of short birdie putts. I think even par would have been acceptable."

"That's not a good round in Henry's mind, so I think tomorrow, he'll come back pretty solidly, and if we can post more numbers around 80, it'll be great," said Greenhills coach Bill Ammerman. "We just want to be in shouting distance and then we'll come back and try to put up some other good numbers."

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com, or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.