After wet weather delayed the original date for the inaugural DC Lady Panther Invitational, Mother Nature made up for it with a perfect day for golf Wednesday at Windridge Country Club, where locals finished near the top of the team and individual standings.
Daviess County coach Logan Clark said he didn’t get much sleep Tuesday night as he was worried he was forgetting something for the first tournament he’s hosted as a head coach, but after 13 hours on the course, a team runner-up finish and an individual fourth-place finisher, Clark said it was worth it.
“The weather was phenomenal, the turnout was phenomenal,” he said. “We didn’t lose any teams from changing the date, which is great. Everything ran smooth. I couldn’t have asked for a better tournament.”
Apollo’s Macey Brown and McCracken County’s Madison Glisson, a 7th-grader, fired low rounds of 72 but it was Brown’s eagle on 17 that proved to be the difference in a scorecard playoff.
Brown said she had a simple goal for Wednesday.
“I was playing with some of my friends. I knew the course so I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be,” she said. “I wanted to just come and shoot well and have fun, talk and go out to eat afterward. Just an easy day to get my mind off of things and I still shot good so I think that kind of shows me something. If you just calm down for a bit and chill then everything is going to be okay.”
Brown said the battle with Glisson made the day go by a lot faster.
“We were on each other’s heels all day long and it’s so fun to have somebody to be able to compete with, especially when you play with them,” she said. “We’re obviously friends and we’re competitive together so that kind of makes it fun just being able to chase after each other and try to beat one another. It’s fun for both of us.”
Madisonville-North Hopkins won the team title with a 337, while Daviess County finished runner-up with a 361.
“I’m very happy with second overall as a team,” Clark said. “Madisonville’s really good and obviously we would have liked to win our hosting tournament … It was a pretty good field today.”
Clark said impressive showings from Emilee Clark and Hadleigh Hunter were key for DC.
“I’m super happy with the girls and with the effort,” he said. “It was a great day.”
The key for his team now is fine-tuning everything for the final half of the season.
“Honestly, I think we just need to focus,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing I see with our girls is these tournaments are supposed to be fun and we’re supposed to enjoy it but that’s the biggest thing I see, just a lapse in focus from some of the girls. That just comes with time.”
The Lady Panthers were led by senior Emilee Clark, as her 84 gave her fourth place after another scorecard playoff.
“I wanted to perform well,” she said. “It wasn’t necessarily that I wanted to win but just perform well as a team because it’s our first invitational ever. We were just excited to play.”
The DC squad and the rest of the local schools also played in their weekly match Tuesday. She said the back-to-back tournaments doesn’t bother her.
“It actually helps me,” Clark said. “I can’t talk for the rest of the girls but playing before a tournament always helps loosen me up and get mentally prepared because I get all my bad shots out.”
With only a couple of months left in her high school career, one of her goals is to be the top player on her team, but she’s more concerned about the other goals.
“I want to lead my team to region,” she said. “I just want to be a good leader for the younger girls. I really want to just dominate honestly.”
Owensboro Catholic’s Abby Bahnick finished just outside of the top-five as she paced the Lady Aces with an 87.
Team Scores
- Madisonville-North Hopkins 337
Daviess County (1) 361
Meade County 363
Apollo 422
Owensboro Catholic 429
Owensboro 521
Individual Scores
- Macey Brown (Apollo) 72
- Madison Glisson (McCracken Co.) 72
- Kaitlyn Zieba (Madisonville-NH) 75
- Emilee Clark (Daviess Co.) 84
- Haley English (Meade Co.) 84
Apollo
Macey Brown 72
Addison Carter 102
Mary Ann Lyons 106
Peyton Rust 142
Daviess County (1)
Emilee Clark 84
Holly Holton 85
Hadleigh Hunter 91
Annalee Yager 101
Daviess County (2)
Anna Lane 109
Megan Haynes 117
Baylie Billingsley 119
Emilee Nguyen 142
Owensboro
Phoenix Barnett 120
Caroline Henderson 123
Jasmine Tong 139
Kaylie Moore 139
Owensboro Catholic
Abby Bahnick 87
RC Porter 104
Conleigh Osborne 87
Laney Ann Osborne 126
