Noah Schurman got off to a slow start at Monday’s District 11 golf qualifying tournament. But the Emmaus High School junior finished strong to shoot 9-over par 81 and make the field for next week’s district championship tournament.

“I played pretty good, just made a few mistakes,” said Schurman Monday after his round at Olde Homestead Golf Course in New Tripoli. “I thought I needed to shoot 83 or 84 and I was confident I could go under. It looked pretty rough at the beginning, but I fought hard and stayed in it.”

Schurman made two double-bogeys over his first four holes and was 10-over par through 13 holes before shooting 1-under par over his last five holes.

He made four pars and a birdie (the par-5 16th hole) down the stretch to earn his second straight trip to the championship tournament.

“It started off bad but I just fought,” he said. “I hit a couple OB and I was like ‘I’ve got to get it together.’ And I just kept fighting and eventually shots started falling and I finished strong.”

Schurman was keeping an eye on scores through the Iscore app, which is a new feature that allows players to see what the rest of the field is doing. In years past, he wouldn’t have known what score he needed to make the cut. But this year players knew exactly where they stood throughout their rounds.

His round featured the one birdie, 10 pars, four bogeys and three doubles. He shot one stroke better than his round at Olde Homestead a week earlier in the East Penn Conference Championship, where an 81 earned him 10th place. While the scores were only a stroke different, the playing conditions made this Monday’s round feel much better.

“I felt like the course was playing easier (last week) than today because toward the end of the day the wind really started picking up,” Schurman said. “I didn’t play very good last week but I’m happy with how I played this week.”

Schurman finished in a tie for fourth place at the qualifier, well under the 14h-place finish he needed to qualify for the championship tournament. He finished 17th at last year’s district tournament with an 81 at the Steel Club.

Hornet senior Anna Farnschlader also competed in the district qualifier Monday. She shot 109 to earn a place in next week’s girls field, making the cut by one shot as the girls qualifying mark is 110 strokes or less.

Farnschlader shot much lower at week earlier at the EPC Tournament. She finished fifth among girls in that event with a 95.

Emmaus finished fourth as a team at the EPC Championships with a score of 347. Liberty (301) won the team title, followed by Nazareth (332), Northampton (337) and Stroudsburg (345). Parkland (360) was fifth.

Emmaus led the Hornets in the league tournament. Teammate Nate Sauter shot 86 at leagues, while the Hornets’ Zachary Yenawine carded an 87, Andrew Kleist had 92 and John Hughes posted a 97.

Emmaus went 10-6 this season and finished in seventh place in the East Penn Conference at 10-5 in league matches. The season was a success after last year’s team graduated three state qualifiers who all went on to play Division 1 golf in college.

This year’s team had a lot of new varsity players in the line up.

“We tried to battle but it’s just a young team,” said Schurman. “We have a lot of time to improve. We’re only going to get better. I’m feeling good about next season.”

Seniors Kleist, Sauter, Farnschlader, Hughes, Zachary Madigan and Avery Salley will graduate from this year’s team, but several juniors and promising underclassmen will return for the Hornets in 2023.