South Putnam girls' golf wins by 4, Shrum shoots 75 for Cloverdale

Friday, August 3, 2012
Cloverdale's Sydney Shrum

CLOVERDALE -- Two days after a full round of golf at Oak Ridge Golf Couse, several Putnam County schools were back on the links again at Clover Meadows.

South Putnam edged the host Clovers by four strokes to claim the Cloverdale Invitational ahead of seven other squads while North Putnam finished fifth.

Cloverdale's Sydney Shrum posted a round of 75 to finish Thursday with medalist honors, shooting five strokes better than Monrovia's Chrislyn Church, who nipped Shrum by two strokes Tuesday.

But the Eagles, led by Madison Cash's round of 95, cobbled together a team score of 438 that was just under the Clover's 442.

North Putnam was paced by Josie Parent's 109 for a team score of 483, 13 strokes off of fourth place Eastern Greene.

As with much of the rest of the ground around Putnam County, Clover Meadows offered a hard surface for the golfers to compete on.

South Putnam head coach Brian McClure said that aside from the heat, the course might have helped the squad.

"The conditions aren't great but they aren't terrible. We have to practice a little bit less but I don' think it hurts them too much," McClure said.

"The ground is hard and the ball is traveling father. That ends up helping them in the long run. With everyone playing on these hard grounds, it's not an advantage or disadvantage for anyone."

"We were a little shorthanded today but the other girls stepped up. Madison Cash had a great round today, possibly her best score ever with a 95," McClure added.

"Everybody stepped up, did what they needed to do and made it a great team win."

Cloverdale head coach Matthew Langdon said that there were some promising signs for the Clovers during their first home meet.

"Early on you don't know what to expect. We had a pretty good first outing at the Eagle Invite, shooting a 430 there," Langdon said.

"Today's 442 was a little higher than we wanted on our home course but with the conditions the way they are, we haven't practiced here much."

"It was a little hot today but we saw some good things from Makayla today. She was in the all-invite team and Sydney had a really great back nine with a 35 to come in strong," Langdon added.

Langdon mentioned that, with seven squad members this season, the challenge for the squad would also include playing against one another.

"The big thing is that when you have more than five players you have competition. We've been able to put some younger girls together with older ones for competitive purposes," Langdon said.

"With that, no girl is safe unless they play and continue to work on their own game. There's a chance someone could take their spot."

"It's easy in golf. Whoever is scoring the best is going to play."

North Putnam head coach Linda Patrick said that while the opening two rounds were more to get out and play, the squad is already focused on where it wants to go.

"Our preparations have been working on hitting off the hard pan and learning how to play on it. For now, it's about practicing their strokes and doing their best on these surfaces," Patrick said.

"What's important for them is to realize we've got a whole year to go. We are looking towards the county meet already."

"We've got a goal in mind this year and we're striving to get to the Putnam County Meet and win it this year. It's a high goal for the team but with more work we'll be real close this year," Patrick added.

"Since we've only started last Friday, I've told the girls we have a lot of work to do and we consider these rounds as practice rounds," Patrick noted.

"The goal was to get out and work on some of the things we've worked on out on the practice range. It was a chance to go and practice some of those shots, then come back to practice and work on them again."

At Clover Meadows

1. South Putnam 438, 2. Cloverdale 442, 3. Tri-West 452, 4. Eastern Greene 470, 5. North Putnam 483, 6. North Central (Farmersburg) 528, Monrovia Inc., Brown County Inc.

Medalist: Sydney Shrum (CL) 75

Individual Scores (County Only)

South Putnam: Cash 95, C. Boyce 106, K. Boyce 111, Perry 126, Schlatter 143

Cloverdale: Shrum 75, Makayla Moore 105, Hannah Spencer 125, Savannah Gaddis 137, Elizabeth Wardlow 149

North Putnam: Josie Parent 109, Olivia Zarate 117, Ellen Wilborn 127, Jessie Cox 130