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South Putnam breaks North Putnam's hold on county girls' golf title
CLOVERDALE – The start of the final week of the girls’ golf season was a pleasant one for South Putnam as the Eagles broke North Putnam’s hold on the county title at the Putnam County Golf Match Monday.
Paced by three All-County golfers in Madie Newby, Alie Newby and Ava Watson, South Putnam dethroned the four-time defending champion Cougars with a round of 195, the latter also having three All-County golfers and shooting 202 as a team.
Greencastle claimed the final All-County golfer slot while finishing with a team score of 241, two strokes ahead of hosts Cloverdale on 243.
North Putnam’s Kylie Dresbach earned medalist honors with a round of 43 and was joined on the All-County team by Makenna Lough and Gabbi Simonson, both carding rounds of 51 on the evening.
With Clover Meadows still soggy in spots after the weekend rain and overcast skies that produces a few sprinkles now and then, the Newby’s led South Putnam’s charge as Madie shot 45 and Alie 47 with Watson coming in on 49 and Megan Arnold rounding out the scoring on 54. Mackenzie Lovett turned in a round of 59 on the day.
“We’ve been getting better and playing well,” South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner said. “Madie and Alie have been playing well up to this point and Ava had been on the verge of being in the 40s for the first time, always seeming to be right there before the last hole or two, so it was good to see her, as a senior, break into the 40s for the first time in her career and on tonight of all nights.
“Megan has been playing in the role there of being back-and-forth, so to see all four girls play well tonight was good to see. Mackenzie didn’t have her best night but she also had two pars tonight, so there were good things all across the board.
“We had three seniors out there, four in total, and to see them win county was cool to see,” Gardner added.
Behind Dresbach, Lough and Simonson, Kaitlynn Jacobs shot 57 while Morgan Mason had a round of 65 for the Cougars.
“We shot 202 and as I reminded the girls, two years ago, we shot 202 and won,” North Putnam coach Earl Hall said. “South Putnam had a great round but I’m proud of the girls as 202 is nothing to be laughed at.
“You win some and lose; we had won four in a row and now we have to start a new streak come next year. I am happy for Kylie, who won medalist, something you don’t see often from a freshman.”
Emma Callahan grabbed the final All-County spot by shooting 53 to lead Greencastle with Ryleigh Tuttle coming in on 58 and both Grace Long and Jessica Garrison carding rounds of 65.
“This is pretty much where we’ve been shooting,” Greencastle head coach Brad Kingma said. “Emma has been doing much better lately though Ryleigh been in a little bit of a rut in the last couple of weeks and it’s disappointing in her senior year not to be All-County.
“Emma has put in the work, been steady and has made pretty good improvements during the year for a sophomore.”
Cloverdale was paced by Kiersten Wade and Aliyah Maldonado, who shot 57 and 58 respectively. Autumn Wheeler turned in a round of 63, Celeste Terrell came in on 65 and Kaitlyn Kerr finished on 66 for the Clovers.
“If you ask are girls, they’d tell you they were disappointed in how things went,” Cloverdale head coach Jaime Steffy said. “They had been playing well; from where we were last year to now, we’re more competitive, we’re more aggressive and if you as the girls, they’d be disappointed.
“We shot 243 tonight and last week, on the same course, we were in the 220s. Our putting let us down a bit tonight. We have a goal of two putts on any hole and we had some places where we had three and even four putts.
“It’s an area where you can lower your score or add to your score very quickly and it hurt us tonight,” Steffy added.
All four schools play again midweek before South Putnam, Greencastle and Cloverdale take part in the IHSAA Northview Girls’ Golf Sectional Friday and North Putnam plays in the IHSAA Attica Girls’ Golf Sectional Saturday.