Apollo’s Macey Brown wasn’t the only local hitting Bowling Green Country Club Saturday for the KHSAA State Girls’ Golf Tournament as Daviess County’s Holly Holton and Owensboro’s Alexa Salamah also made the cut.
Holton finished tied for 38th as she shot an 83-31 to finish at +20 for the tournament while Salamah finished 86-94 and finished in a tie for 69th.
T38. Holly Holton (Daviess County ) 83-81 (+20)
Holton, a junior for the Lady Panthers, was happy with how she finished at the state tournament.
“I feel great,” she said. “I came in kind of worried about the rain, it was looking to be a gloomy day but I ended up scoring better than I did yesterday and yesterday was a perfect day.”
Holton said she couldn’t put her finger on why she felt more comfortable Saturday but she said familiarity with the course definitely helped.
“Part of the reason is I knew the course a whole lot better since I played yesterday as well and I felt more in place since I had made the cut,” she said. “I felt like I was in the zone. I had made it, today was just a day to have fun.”
After already making multiple trips to state for DC, she said she’s looking forward to making the trip again her senior year.
She said her finish Saturday could help with that.
“I know what I need to work on and I’m going to focus on the things I didn’t do so well today,” she said. “I didn’t use my driver at all today. If I can score that good without a driver, imagine what I could do with a driver.”
The decision to not use a driver during her final made was made early Saturday morning when Holton hit the range.
She said she was hitting her 3-wood solid over and over while her driver proved to be a little inconsistent for her liking.
“We figured today, with the conditions, it was better to be consistent and straight than far and in the trees,” she said.
Like many others Saturday afternoon, Holton watched as the final group approached the 18th green and with multiple players from the city making the cut, she said the future is bright.
“I feel like a lot of the golfers in Owensboro are young,” she said. “They’ve grown up playing in all the little tours, the GO Series. I think building off of what they’ve grown up on, when they get older, they’re going to be really good. The coming generations are going to be really stacked.”
T69. Alexa Salamah (Owensboro) 86-94 (+36)
Salamah finished with a 94 in her final round and said she wasn’t pleased with how she did after making the cut with an 86 Friday.
“I played pretty bad but I think it was a good experience,” she said. “There was more pressure for sure, with people watching but I don’t feel too bad about how I did.”
The Lady Devil golfer was one of four seventh-graders in the state to make the cut and said while it makes her proud, it was her focus.
“It really did but I tried not to think about it too much,” she said.
Despite not playing as well as she liked, Salamah said with a lot of golf left in her career, it’s something to build off of.
“There’s a lot I can learn from this,” she said. “One of the reasons I did really bad, toward the middle of the round, I lost focus and I started doubling and bogeying. I think it taught me how to stay under control, even when you’re playing bad.”
Salamah too was around the 18th green watched Brown approach and she said she hopes to be in that position one day.
“It looks really exciting,” she said. “All these people watching you, I really want to be able to get to that point.”
