The Lady Titan golf team traveled 50 miles to take on Jasper and Heritage Hills in a triangular golf match on Monday, Sept. 11. The match was played at the Buffalo Trace course, which is located in Jasper and is the Lady Wildcats’ home course.
“Buffalo Trace is in really nice condition but is very challenging,” said Lady Titan golf coach Kristen Harpenau.
The Lady Titans came into the match being close with the Lady Wildcats throughout the year.
“The Lady Titans and Jasper are pretty evenly matched. Much like last year, we beat them at their invitational by a few strokes, and they won their triangular match by a few strokes,” Harpenau said. “Also, last year, Jasper won the Sectional over the Lady Titans by a few strokes, but the Lady Titans beat Jasper in the Regional (came down to the 5th players’ scores for a tie break) to finish third and qualify for the State Finals. It appears the two teams may be battling it out for those same positions this year.”
Junior Haley Hughes found success early on in this match, which helped earn her a medalist spot on the podium at the end of the match with a score of 38.
“I started off with a great mindset, had a good shot and a putt and started my round with a birdie,” Hughes said. “Then, leading onto the next hole, I tripled it, putting me at two over par. I just kept my head in the game for the rest of the round after and finished my round bogey free.”
Senior Katelyn Walker also saw success early on in the match.
“After a birdie on the first hole, I was feeling confident for the rest of the match,” Walker said.
Hughes birdied holes 3 and 9, while Walker birdied hole number 1.
The other varsity members for the Lady Titans also competed well against the competition on Monday night.
“Our four scorers for the match were Haley Hughes, 38; [senior] Aubrey Davis, 4 7; Katelyn Walker, 50 and [sophomore] Olivia Alston, 54,” Harpenau said.
The Lady Titans will be busy in competition this week, as they are making up matches that were previously postponed due to the extreme heat that came through in August. Harpenau looks forward to the girls having some downtime coming up, doing some fine-tuning before the postseason matches begin.
“Hopefully they will get a little range time in to tune up their swings and mid-range chipping,” Harpenau said.
The Lady Titans will be back in action on the Buffalo Trace golf course at 10:00 a.m. EST for the Sectional matchup.
