Playoff decides individual state golf title while girls’ team race ends in a rout
Apollo’s Macey Brown parred the first playoff hole in the 2020 Leachman Buick GMC Cadillac/KHSAA Girls’ State Golf Championship to earn the individual state title Saturday at Bowling Green Country Club as Marshall County ran away with the team title, winning by a dominating 39 strokes.
Brown, a junior, and Madison Central sophomore Elizabeth Eberle each finished with a 1-over par 145 over the two-day event on the par-72 course.
They were the only two players under par after Friday’s round one, and each scuffled a bit to finish out round two with Brown’s 74 bringing her even with day one leader Eberle, who finished Saturday with a 75.
Bullitt East’s Macie Brown (note different spelling, different school) roared from seven strokes off the pace to finish in third place at 1-under for Saturday and 3-over for the event.
Marshall County, led by seventh-grader Trinity Beth, the daughter of girls’ golf and basketball coach Aaron Beth, posted a team total of 619, 43-over par, and 39 strokes better than second-place South Warren.
The Marshals held just a six-stroke advantage over two-time defending state team champion Lexington Christian after round one, but they blistered the rest of the field on Saturday by improving on their Friday total by nine strokes while their competitors slipped.
Marshall County placed two golfers in the top 10, Beth (fourth) and Savannah Howell (fifth). Megan Hertter finished in a tie for 16th and the last golfer counting toward the team total, Katie Roberts, finished 37th. Their fifth golfer, Elsie Riley, came in a tie for 69th place.
It marks Marshall County’s first girls’ golf team title. And with potentially everyone back next season, it could be a trend. Howell and Hertter are juniors, Roberts is an eighth-grader and Riley is a sophomore. Marshall County’s Jay Nimmo won his second consecutive boys’ individual state title earlier this week.
Region 9 team champion Lexington Christian, also a young team after the graduation of four seniors from their two-time state championship run, finished in a tie for third place along with Sacred Heart. The Eagles were led by freshman Christy Ann Carter’s 16-over par 160, which tied her for 26th place.
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Casey Powell, an individual qualifier who won the Region 9 title last week in a playoff, also shot 16 over for the event.
This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 5:12 PM.
