The Plymouth girls golf team played Saturday in the Warsaw Invitational at Stonehenge Golf Club firing a season-best 382 finishing 9th in arguably their stiffest test of the season.
Saturday’s season-low output was in large part due to the excellent play of Junior Annastasia Hutchings. After a rough start on #1 Anna rebounded immediately with two straight pars before posting a birdie on #4. After a dropped shot on 5 Anna rebounded again with solid pars on 6 and 7 to turn in 40, her lowest of the season. The back nine, which is historically tougher, proved a stiffer challenge. Anna led the team with six greens in regulation, two on the back, but better-putting lead to a 45 finishing nine and a career-best 85 total. Anna’s ability to continue to rebound, refocus and scrap was indicative of her toughness and strong will. Anna’s work coming into the season has started to show as she’s starting to play her best golf of the season. Saturday’s 85 was our best round of the season and best individual performance since 2016.
Our second career-best of the day was Sophomore Elaina McDonald 98. After some unfortunate shots on the 6th Elaina rebounded with a solid stretch of play to finish the front in 50. The putter got hot on the back nine to the tune of 15 putts, a team-best. Elaina, like Anna, led the team on Saturday with 33 putts.
Our third career-best of the day was Sophomore Emma Rozycki 101. Emma like her classmate Elaina had her best putting day of the season with 35. Most impressive was Emma’s ability to improve on the tougher back nine by 5 shots! Emma carded two pars on the back both on the par 3s.
Rounding out the scoring for the Pilgrims was Olivia Horvath 98 and Hannah LaFree 104. Olivia’s opening and closing hole on the front inflated her turn score. Olivia righted the ship on the back nine carding a 45. Hannah strung together back to back pars twice on her round. Most impressive for Hannah was her performance on the greens; a season-best 36.
I was proud of the girls’ efforts on the greens Saturday. All were at or under the magic number of 36 putts – an average of 2 per green. We’ve made an effort to improve our short game and we’re seeing the fruit of that labor. Three personal bests are always exciting and rewarding.
Looking down the road, playing well at the Sectional venue bodes well for the close of the season when we need to put our best foot forward. Outside of the conference, the state tournament is the pinnacle of our season.
NLC round-robin play begins next week. NLC favorite NorthWood finished second behind reigning state champion Homestead on Saturday. Concord finished third on Saturday. In NLC play Concord will push NorthWood this year due to a couple of very significant additions. Our girls are next in action on Wednesday when we face Goshen at the newcomer to the conference Mishawaka at Eberhart in Mishawaka. This will be the girls’ first time playing at Eberhart. Thursday Warsaw comes to Pretty Lake for our lone dual match of the round-robin.
