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Householder advances to state tournament
By Eric Wade
Nevada Daily Mail
Fifty athletes from 18 schools gathered at the Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course Monday morning for the Class 1, Sectional 2 girls' golf tournament.
Things didn't go as planned for anyone involved as Mother Nature yet again threw a wrench in the works, but tournament officials, including Nevada Lady Tigers head golf coach Brian Leonard soldiered on and the tournament was eventually completed. Once the more than one-hour delay for frost on the greens that started the day was over, the tournament went on without a hitch and ultimately set a fourth of the field for the 2012 Class 1 State Championship. The tournament was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., but the frost prevented the first group of competitors from teeing off until 10:10 a.m.
Among those in competition for one of the coveted spots in the state tournament was Nevada's own Hannah Householder. The sophomore came into the day with a high level of confidence since this year's tournament was to be played on the Lady Tigers' home course.
Householder came into the day with a significant load on her shoulders as not only the only representative for the Lady Tigers in the Sectional tournament, but the only girls' golfer from Nevada to ever play a postseason tournament on her home course. None of that added pressure seemed to matter, however, as Householder was full of nothing but confidence coming into the day. The biggest thing on Householder's mind was simply avoiding the heartbreak last year's showing brought her when she missed the state tournament cut by just four strokes.
Householder and Leonard both said before the tournament started that she should be able to make the cut easily, shooting in the upper-80s to low-90s. Householder's day didn't get off to the start she and Leonard would have liked as she shot a front nine score of 49, but weather conditions that undoubtedly affected every player in the tournament to some degree allowed Householder to just make the state tournament cut as she finished the back nine in 50 strokes, making her final score for the day a 27-over 99, which tied her for 19th place individually.
On top of the near-freezing temperatures that greeted the competitors, coaches and tournament officials at the beginning of the day, wind was a significant factor throughout the day, leading to several other scores coming in higher than expected, including Mount Vernon's Ashley Childers, who was unable to back up her previous best 75 at Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course as she finished in sixth place overall at 87. Some scores seemed to be unaffected, however, as Cole Camp's Megan Keck won the tournament with a 2-over 74 -- an even better score than she posted at Nevada earlier in the season.
Sacred Heart High School won the overall team tournament title, giving all of its team members a free pass to the state tournament while Mount Vernon grabbed the other team berth. Sacred Heart came into the day as a heavy favorite and didn't disappoint, running away from second place Mount Vernon by 39 strokes, 335-374.
Householder, Keck, Childers and the rest of the top 12 individual scorers and the top two teams will now get set to head to the Class 1 State Championship tournament at Meadow Lake Acres Country Club in New Bloomfield, Mo., on Oct. 15 and 16. Tee times had not yet been announced Monday evening.