5 things to know about AA golf season, Great Falls Invite

Here are five things to know about the upcoming Class AA golf season, which starts in Great Falls at the Great Falls Invitational on Monday.

1. Junior Joey Moore of Billings West is the prohibitive favorite to win boys’ medalist honors at not only the Great Falls Invitational but the whole thing in early October. He’s the reigning champion this week and finished second at state a year ago.

2. The Class AA state tournament, to be played in Billings at Lake Hills Golf Course, will be Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

3. The Great Falls High girls and Billings West boys are the defending champions. The Bison won their first state title since 2000 last October in Helena. While the Bison girls should take a step back, the Bear boys, to be coached by Marcus Drange, a former golfer at West and Montana State-Billings who mentored Billings Skyview last season, are among the top teams once again.

4. Kalispell Glacier’s Tom Mann and Billings West’s Hayden Flohr topped the leaderboard last year in Helena, on the boys’ and girls’ sides, respectively. They have since graduated, so new individual winners will be crowned in 2016.

5. The Bozeman girls and West boys triumphed at the Great Falls Invitational in 2015. It took the Hawks 728 strokes to do it, while the Bears combined for a two-day total of 609. Competition gets underway Monday afternoon at Meadow Lark Country Club with a shotgun start at 1:30.