This year will be remembered for more reasons than one, the Utah Section PGA hopes that one of those reasons was the opportunity to receive some closure on the 2020 high school golf season as classifications 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A were able to compete in the Spring Individual Championship at Rose Park Golf Course on June 4th.
Annabelle Millard of Dixie High School, who will graduate in 2022, stole the show for the day and for the 4A classification with a round of (-4) 70, the low round of the event.
“Everything really fell in place, my mental game was really strong,” Millard said about her round.
“I was really excited when I found out about this event. I just feel like it gave a little bit of closure, especially to seniors, who wouldn’t have had state otherwise.”
Millard had six birdies on the day and had a three-hole stretch of birdies on holes seven, eight and nine.
As for the future, Millard added, “I definitely want to play college golf wherever I can and hopefully continue to win state tournaments.”
Ellie DeMond of 3A Morgan High School picked the perfect moment to shoot her career-low round.
The Morgan freshman shot a (+1) 75 to win the 3A Girls Individual Championship. Richfield High School’s Ellie Hair finished runner-up with a (+3) 77.
“My chipping helped me a lot today,” DeMond said.
The second-lowest score on the day came from Rowland Hall freshman Arden Louchheim who shot a (-1) 73 to win the 2A Individual Championship.
“I kept my drives generally in play… it was nice to have shorter wedges in,” Lochheim said.
“Golf has been one of my only constants throughout all of this because we’ve been able to play socially distanced. It was great to get out and play. I was hoping to win state with my team, but it was definitely cool to win individualy.
“I wanted to thank the Utah PGA for putting on this awesome tournament, Rowland Hall and my coach Clay Ogden.”
Rich High School junior McKina Stacey won the 1A Girls Individual Championship with a (+21) 95, two strokes better than her sophomore teammate Natalee Parry, who finished runner-up.
“My main goal was just to relax and focus on my game, rather than other people, and just play my game.
“I was so pumped,” Stacey said of her reaction when she learned of the event. “I was a little out of practice, but I was so excited.”
Rounding out the event was the Boys 1A Individual Championship, won by Manila High School junior Brody Schofield, who shot (+4) 76.
Schofield decided he wanted to be a golfer after watching the 2015 Masters tournament. The nearest golf course is an hour drive from his home.
“I was so pumped,” Schofield said about learning of the event. “The reason everyone wants this is because we love competition. When you can compete, it gives you something to work for.
“The closest course to me is an hour away in Green River, Wyoming. I hit in a cow pasture quite a bit, that’s where I really get a lot of my practice done and then in my backyard chipping and putting.”
The Utah Section is in a fortunate position to be able to provide an individual championship to the spring classifications in a year that isn’t quite going as planned.