Dunn ties Ettrick Golf Club record with 8-under-par 28

Jake Dunn was ticked off as he pushed a tee into the dirt on the tee box of the ninth hole at Ettrick Golf Club last Wednesday.

Dunn had just missed a birdie putt on his eighth hole, a gaffe he thought would keep him from getting to the course record for lowest score.

“I was pissed,” Dunn told the Times on Friday. “I was pouting that I had missed a putt on (hole) eight that would’ve put me at 7-under and then a chance to make birdie (on nine) to get the record. So I had a crappy drive and I joked like, ‘I guess I’ll just have to make this.’”

And make it he did. Dunn holed out on his second shot from about 83 yards out to score an 8-under 28, tying Paul Williamson for the lowest round ever carded at the par-36 course on Fairway Avenue. Williamson has held the record since September of 1989.

“You kind of look at the flag, look at your golf ball and it was right at it,” Dunn said of his eagle on nine. “You’re waiting for it to come down and you hear the tick of the flag as it flew straight in, so it was kind of cool.”

Asked what the best part of his game was during his record-tying performance, he said it was just 'one of those days'. Dunn finished with the eagle, six birdies and two pars.

“Everything was just working,” he said.

The 35-year-old got his start in golf as a freshman on the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School golf team and used to work at Ettrick Golf Club. He lives in Onalaska but remains a member at the course. He guessed he’s played more than 1,000 rounds at the course.

Getting to the record has been a lifetime goal, Dunn said. He hadn’t talked to Williamson as of Friday, but Dunn said he was excited to talk to him in a few weeks, adding that they play together yearly.

Originally Dunn didn’t plan to keep the scorecard, but he talked to a few people in the clubhouse who convinced him he should commemorate the moment, one that Dunn admitted gave him the feeling of a golf giant for a few minutes.

“We were hootin’ and hollerin’ and there was a big fist pump as I pretended like I was Tiger Woods for a little while,” Dunn said between chuckles. “And then it kind of dawns on you that it was something special that’s only been done once before by a good golfer.”

To be at the peak of the course scorecard leaderboard alongside Williamson means a lot for Dunn, who conceded he has hopes for an even better round at Ettrick.

“I’ll be better,” he said. “That’s not the lowest I want to shoot out there.”