Isabella McCauley has wanted to win the state tournament — badly — since she started playing at the varsity level in seventh grade.
And she finished well in each of her first two appearances at Bunker Hills, placing ninth in seventh grade and sixth last spring.
That just might not have met up with her personal expectations. But her two-day performance this week certainly did. The Simley freshman not only won the Class 3A state championship, but did so in record-setting fashion — by a whopping 10 shots with a 36-hole score of 9-under-par 135. That tied the Class 3A girls record, matching the score posted by New Prague’s Kenzie Neisen in 2014.
And no one at the course Wednesday seemed surprised about it.
“She has this in her,” Simley coach Kyle Golden said. “She obviously played great, and she showed up and had her ‘A’ game, but you watch the way she prepares and practices and approaches everything, she just has this kind of golf in her. That’s what makes her so good.”
The challenge was to get all of that preparation and work to pay off this week at this course. It required a new approach.
“I decided the first two years I’d put a lot of pressure on how I would do,” McCauley said. “I just wanted to stay calm, knowing that in the past I hadn’t done well putting pressure on myself.”
This week, she approached each shot as its own individual entity. In the past, Golden said McCauley was often in a hurry on the course, and would try to force things to happen. This week, she played a patient game.
“What I saw over the last couple of days was a player maturing on the golf course,” he said. “Patient when she needed to be, aggressive when she could be. And she picked her spots really, really well.”
McCauley said she knew there were low scores to be had this week in Coon Rapids. She proved that to be true on Day 1, posting a five-under 67 on Tuesday, good for a three-stroke leading heading into the final round. It’s said to be challenging to follow one good round with another, but McCauley wasn’t planning on playing tentative golf Wednesday.
“I just wanted to put down a good score,” she said. “Kind of go low and not play to lose.”
Mission accomplished. McCauley shot a 4-under 68 on Wednesday, six shots better than anyone else on the course. She played her final seven holes in 3 under, an exclamation point on her dominant performance.
“She kind of gets into her own zone,” Golden said. “She spends so much time with the game that she knows what her clubs are going to do, she knows what she wants to do with the shots. She’s a student of the game. … She’s the one that knows what she wants to do. It’s just a pleasure to be out there and watching her.”
Golden noted McCauley is a good enough player to win every time she steps onto the course, but golf doesn’t work that way. The last two years it just didn’t happen for her.
“I’m happy to say,” he said, “this time it happened for her.”
For that, McCauley is grateful.
“This has been like the one thing all year that like (I thought), if I can win this (I’m set),” McCauley said. “It means so much, really.”
Chanhassen won the team title with a score of 61-over 627, 13 shots better than second-place Edina. McCauley led Simley to a third-place finish at 655, Roseville was fourth at 656, Stillwater fifth at 677 and Lakeville North sixth at 685.
CLASS 2A
Red Wing dominated the Class 2A tournament at the Ridges at Sand Creek, winning the team title by one shot over Minnewaska with a score of 646, and going 1-2 in the individual competition. Sophia Yoemans shot 138, and teammate Leah Herzog was second at 145. Both are seniors.CLASS A
BOLD edged Park Christian 704-705 to win the Class A team title at Pebble Creek Golf Club. Rachel Halvorson of Lac Qui Parle Valley was the individual winner at 160.
https://www.twincities.com/2019/06/12/state-girls-golf-simleys-isabella-mccauley-shots-135-to-win-class-3a-by-record-10-shots/
2019-06-13 01:15:00Z
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