Golf seasons end at IHSAA regional

By Steve Fields

For the Banner Graphic

GREENWOOD — The high school girls’ golf season came to a close Saturday for Greencastle, South Putnam and North Putnam in the regional at Smock Golf Course in Greenwood.

The first Greencastle team in “seven or eight years” to qualify for the regional finished 18th and South Putnam’s Alicia Haywood and North Putnam’s Taylor Dixon both have had, and will have, better days on the golf course.

Westfield, state runnerup last year, won the regional with a 297, led by medalist Cailyn Henderson, who shot an eight-under par 64. Carmel finished second at 315 and Zionsville third at 326. The top three teams and top five individuals not on advancing teams, qualify for the two-day, 36-hole state tournament state finals at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel this weekend.

With six of the top 10 ranked teams in the field, the Smock regional was by far the toughest in the state. In fact, only one player from the Northview Sectional, Alexandria Maris of Terre Haute South, advanced to the state finals.

Greencastle, qualifying for the regional with a third place at the Northview Sectional, was realistic about its chances of advancing.

“This is the first team from Greencastle to advance (to the regional) in seven or eight years. We weren’t coming in here expecting to win, but we would have liked to played better. Always in golf we tell (our players) to try to do your personal best. We had two people today do that, Gabby Selvia (120) and Rose White (135) shot personal bests today, so I am really proud of them,” Greencastle coach Bob Hedge said.

Lindsey Bridgewater led the Tiger Cubs with a 104 on the 5,299-yard course. Playing the water-filled back nine holes first, Bridgewater carded a 50 then finished the first nine with a 54.

“My first nine was kind of stressful. I ended up not shooting too bad on it. The second nine, I definitely got down on myself, but I ended up shooting a 54, which is way better than I expected to at Smock,” Bridgewater said.

Filling out Greencastle’s scorecard were Macey Masten at 116, Alex Weliever 121, Gabby Selvia 120 and Rose White 135.

“We struggled a lot today. This course has a lot of water on it. A lot of times it’s a blind shot into the water and we seemed to find the water every time. Smock has really big greens, so our putting was not very good today,” Hedge said.

South Putnam’s Haywood was a little disappointed with her 94, but only because one hole got away from her.

“I feel like I did fairly well. I feel like I could have done better,” Haywood said.

The South Putnam senior shot a 48 on her first nine and 46 on the second. The final hole was one she wanted back.

“My drive went a little left. Then I kind of chunked my second shot into a bunch of trees. I punched that one out. My chip (on to the green) was a little long. Luckily I was able to two-putt,” Haywood said.

For North Putnam’s Dixon, who advanced through the Crawfordsville sectional, the Smock regional was a learning experience and a day of personal growth on the golf course. The junior, who posted a 104 in the sectional, shot a 123 for the 18 holes.

“I don’t know if the course was tougher, I just wasn’t playing my game today,” Dixon said.

The first North Putnam player to qualify for a regional in 10 years was in a field of some of the state’s best players. Dixon started with a 12 on the first hole.

“I just think a lot of it had to do with nerves and just overthinking. The bad hole I had on number one, because I started off bad, so that kind of carried on for a little bit,” Dixon said.

It took Dixon seven or so holes to regain her composure, a lesson that will help her next year, her coach said.

“That’s how we approached this (tournamment) coming into it. She got here. (She is) the first (player) we’ve had (in the regional) in 10 years at North Putnam. She should feel great that she achieved this honor, to represent our high school here. I told her, whatever score you come out of here with, it’s going to be a learning experience. From that learning experience we will look at it, see what happened, what went wrong, what was good, bad and ugly and then we go from there for next year,” North Putnam coach Linda Patrick said.

Coach Patrick told her that Saturday “was a game of nerves and emotions” and when you can’t get the mental game under control, your playing games suffers.

“She needs to realize that very rarely someone comes into this regional for the first time and goes out a winner,” Patrick said. “Taylor now knows how she will face regionals next year and come back with a whole different approach and game plan.”

Team scores (3 lowest advance): Westfield 297, Carmel 315, Zionsville 326, Plainfield 330, Brownsburg 337, Ben Davis 340, Terre Haute North and Center Grove 343, Perry Meridian 352, Lebanon 354, Terre Haute South 360, Whiteland 367, Shawe Memorial 391, Madison 404, Western Boone 412, Henryville 425, North Montgomery 432, Greencastle 459.

Medalist: Cailyn Henderson, Westfield 64.

Advancing Individuals (top 5): Abby Cody, Brownsburg, 77, Kayla Benge, Plainfield, 77, Danielle Fishburn, Ben Davis, 79, Troi Treash, Plainfield, 81, Alexandria Maris, Terre Haute South, 81.

Greencastle: Macey Masten 60-57—116, Alex Weliever 62-59—121, Lindsey Bridgewater 50-54—104, Gabby Selvia 57-63—120, Rose White 69-66—135.

Individual entries: Alicia Haywood, South Putnam 48-46—94; Taylor Dixon, North Putnam, 63-60—123; Ali Bazani, South Vermillion, 42-43—85; Shay Ehrlich, Northview, 55-53—108.