HOPKINSVILLE — Just as she did two weeks ago at the annual City-County Tournament at Windridge Country Club, Apollo’s Macey Brown walked off the 18th green Tuesday at Hopkinsville Golf & Country Club and she was met by a hug from her dad but this time, the hug was a little tighter and a little longer.
When Brown walked off the green with her 75, she was the leader in the clubhouse and hours later when play finished, she was still the leader as Brown was crowned the 2nd Region Girls’ Golf Tournament champion.
“Whenever I finished, I kept telling people it’s not official until it’s official,” she said. “Once my name got called, it was a really great feeling. I feel like it was real then, everybody cheering for you as you walk up. That was a real feeling. Right now I am still in a little bit of shock but it is a great feeling.”
Brown fired a 37-38 as she won the event by four shots over Madisonville-North Hopkins’ Katilyn Zieba. Brown’s 75 was the same winning score former Owensboro Catholic standout Emma Payne shot a year ago as an untimely and unfortunate penalty cost Brown strokes during her round as she finished a few shots back.
The E-gal junior admitted the incident was in her mind but she wasn’t going to let it stop her from her ultimate goal.
“I think it’s super hard to completely block that out,” she said. “It’s always going to be there. It’s going to be that little ‘you were so close last year. You just have to play as good as you did last year but a little bit better.’ I think that’s always something that’s going to be running through your mind but I did try my best to just be able to block that out and say ‘hey Macey, it’s a new day, new course. One shot at a time. You have to be able to do what you can do. Play to the best of your abilities.’
“I think that for me I did a really good job of just trying to focus on what I was doing and not what everyone else was doing.”
The 9:24 a.m. tee time featured Brown, along with Hopkinsville’s Cate Blane and University Heights Academy’s Rheagan Lindsey. The much-anticapted group lived up to the billing as all three qualified for the state tournament in Bowling Green.
Brown said she knew she couldn’t worry about the other two players in her group.
“Today I was just really focused on playing my game,” she said. “Focusing on myself, focusing on one shot at a time. I didn’t really want to worry about what anyone else was doing. I wanted to make sure I played the best of my ability. I was mentally prepared, as well as physically prepared. I felt like I had practiced as much as I could and it’s very good to be able to see your hard work pay off and that’s what I felt when I was going into today.”
In recent years, Brown has had to make the trip to Bowling Green as the only Apollo golfer but that won’t be the case this season as freshman teammate Mary Ann Lyons carded an 88 and won a three-person playoff for one of two spots to advance.
The duo is excited to be able to make that next journey together.
“It makes me feel amazing for her,” Brown said. I’m super proud of her. She’s worked extremely hard this year and I knew that this was definitely something on her bucket list to be able to play good, go to state. It’s hard going into a playoff as a freshman, that’s a lot of pressure. I was super proud of her, she was able to pull it off.
“It’s going to be fun to have somebody down there, especially on your team because I’ve had to go without somebody before and it’s going to be fun. You could cheer on somebody else and they could cheer you on. It’s just fun to have someone to lean on while you’re down there … I just can’t wait to see what the future holds for her as well.”
Brown has been leading the pack all season but she’s hit the links with some impressive players as Apollo coach Jarrod Carter has set her up for success.
She said that’s one of the reasons she was able to prevail Tuesday.
“Last weekend I played in the All-State Tournament, which is a huge tournament,” she said. “I felt like I had to be super mentally prepared while I was playing there, especially since how many girls were there.”
Family and friends mean everything to Brown and they could be seen walking along each hole, never out of sight from the one they came to see.
The gallery following Brown has been a staple this year and she said it makes the honor that much more special.
“I have so much credit to give out to people,” she said. “Me and my dad have spent countless, countless hours out on that golf course just practicing. He’s been my number one supporter. I’m so thankful for him just to be able to be there no matter where it’s at, what the weather’s like, he’s always there supporting me 100% all-in whether I play bad or good and so is my mom, my family, my sister. She’s the first person that called me after I got off the course. They’ve always been there for me.”
Another person that’s been there for the long haul is her coach.
Carter said Monday that Brown doesn’t play the course like most players and it makes his job as a coach much easier.
“I tell everybody Jarrod’s my best friend,” she said. “He really is. He’s just like a second dad to me. I can tell him anything. We think through shots. We fight like brother and sister, which is not the best sometimes. We’re just super close. We have a really good connection. He’s also been there throughout all of this and he’s spent countless hours out there with me after practice, until dark, going out on the course, hitting under trees. Just insane amounts of time.”
But Carter isn’t the only coach that’s had an impact on Brown.
Her swing coach, Mike Wolf, has been there as well. Wolf has been teaching for more than 25 years and Brown said she wouldn’t be the person she is today on or off the course without Wolf.
“He has been one of the biggest people that’s had the biggest impact,” she said. “He’s went through some major changes with me like down to where I don’t really know if I want to play golf anymore. He’s brought from that up to what I am now. It’s great to see how one person could do that to you and how big of an impact they can have in your life.”
For Brown, Tuesday’s championship wasn’t just for her. It was for everyone who helped her get to that point.
“It just means a lot they came out there today, especially driving all the way from Owensboro,” she said. “It just meant a lot and it made my heart happy when you look down the fairway and you see all of your people in a big group.”
But, Brown knows the job isn’t done as she now can check one goal off of her list but another goal is waiting in Bowling Green next week.
