Daviess County girls golf grabbed first place as a team, while Macey Brown came away victorious individually at the City-County Golf Tournament.
The Lady Panthers shot a 347 over the course of two days, while Owensboro Catholic grabbed second with a 420 and Owensboro finished with a 457.
Holly Holton led Daviess County with an 80 and grabbed second individually, while Kirsten Henderson (85), Baylie Billingsley (90) and Addison Heady (92) rounded out the team’s overall score.
Macey Brown led the way individually with a 76, while teammate Claire Reynolds finished third with an 82 and Mary-Ann Lyons also competed individually for Apollo with a score of 86. Trinity’s Makenna Greenwell was their lone competitor, finishing with a 140.
Daviess County Head Coach Logan Clark was thrilled with his team’s play on the final day of the tournament despite not having as much success as day one.
“I feel great about the day,” Clark said. “Yesterday we played better, our scores were better. We slipped a little bit today, but overall it was an awesome day. I can’t ask for more. They’ve all improved as the season’s gone on and this is one of our best team scores of the year.”
Clark said that it’s his team’s work ethic and leadership that has really mad the difference and helped them grow from match to match.
“They’ve been working really hard and I have three seniors this year which has been huge,” Clark said. “They’re just natural leaders and my younger girls on the team kind of look up to them and they strive to play better to stay at their level too. They worked hard. We’ve practiced hard this season. We’ve had some ups and downs and I think this year they’ve learned from the downs more than in the past.”
Clark said that he was proud of Henderson and Billingsley for stepping up and having big performances when it mattered most.
“For sure Kirsten Henderson,” Clark said. “She’s been in my three spot all year and this was her best 18-hole score today and she had that big 40 yesterday. That was huge. Then also Baylie Billingsley. She stepped up big with a 90. That’s a personal best for her as well.”
Daviess County now looks to learn from this experience and carry its momentum throughout the remainder of the season.
“I think they can take this team score and build off that for region,” Clark said. “We’ve still got a couple weeks and I think they’re going to take all the plus’s from this week and build on that and hopefully have a good outing at region.”
As far as individual play goes, Brown wasn’t pleased with her play on day one, but turned it around to come away victorious.
“The first day I struggled just a little bit,” Brown said. “I bogeyed three out of my first four holes, but I had a lot left so I knew I could try and get it back. And then I kept it under 40. Obviously I wasn’t happy, but I was ok with it. Then today I went in just playing my own game forgetting about yesterday and I played really well today.”
Brown said she was worried about doing good in her last time competing at the City-County golf tournament on day one, but once she treated it like another round of golf she was able to dial in and improve on day two.
“My approach shots were closer to the hole so that gave me some good birdie opportunities,” Brown said. “My putting was really good today. I didn’t three-putt at all. So I would say that was a big factor.”
Brown has now won the tournament individually three years in a row and is ecstatic to have the accolade.
“It was just important to me because it is my last year,” Brown said. “I like having that under my belt. It’s a really good confidence booster going into region and going into state. Just because it’s you feel like you’ve won something and you can do it again. It’s a really cool tournament. It’s my favorite tournament of the year and I was really happy I could pull it off.”
