AMERICAN FORK — With the girls’ prep golf season canceled, along with every other spring high school sport in Utah, the Utah Section PGA decided to put on an event for the golfers in the form of the Girls Individual Spring Championships.
So 178 girls teed it up at Fox Hollow Golf Course Wednesday to have a fun, year-ending tournament, while also getting a few trophies handed out.
“Girls high school golf is very near and dear to the Utah Section PGA since we’ve been involved with it for the past 12 years,” said Utah Section executive director Devin Dehlin, whose organization ran the event. “We felt like if there was anything we can do for girls to have some type of spring golf experience we wanted to do it. That was our motivation, to give them something to look forward to, especially for the seniors.”
While fun was the certainly the byword Wednesday, there was also some serious competition, which there’s been little of over the past two and a half months since sports were basically shut down everywhere.
Berlin Long, a 16-year-old sophomore at Lone Peak High School, shot the best round of the day, a sparkling 6-under-par 67 at the 5,659-yard, par-73 course to win the 6A tournament. She was one shot better than Lila Galeai who had shot in the morning 5A tournament.
Long, playing in the 6A Tournament in the afternoon, was well aware of Galeai’s score of 68 when she got to the 18th green where she faced a tricky 30-foot putt for birdie. Even though the two tournaments were separate competitions, Long wanted the low score. So she promptly stepped up and sank the putt for her 67.
“I knew if I wanted to beat her, I’d have to make it.” she said. “I thought, ‘don’t leave it short, give it a chance to go in.’”
Long finished five strokes ahead of Herriman sophomore Millie Terrion, who finished with a 72. Victoria Castro of Davis and Victoria Romney of Corner Canyon both came in at 77, while Caylyn Ponich of Davis finished at 80. Others in the top 10, earning all-state honors, were Lone Peak’s Maybel Harris and West’s Whitney Banz at 81, Corner Canyon’s Savannah Romney at 82, Rachel Stewart at 83 and Herriman’s Haylee Holmes at 84.
Lila Galeai of Lehi ran away with the 5A tournament, firing a 5-under-par 68 to win by five shots over Sunbin Seo of Timpview and Claire Whisenant of Skyline at even-par 73. Timpview’s Keilani Hanamaikai and Rachel Lillywhite both shot 81, and Savanna Einerson of Bountiful came in at 83
Orem’s Sophie Hatch and Brighton’s Madison McQuivey shot 88, and Ali Efnor of Park City and Lori Hwang of Alta rounded out the top 10 at 89
Galeai had two eagles and four birdies on the day. She eagled two of the front nine par 5s, 3 and 9 and added birdies at 1, 6, 10 and 16 and also had three bogeys on the day.
Next week, golfers in classes 1A through 4A will play at Rose Park Golf Course on June 4 along with the 1A boys, who play in the spring rather than the fall when the rest of the prep boys compete.
6A Girls Individual Spring Championship
67 — Berlin Long, Lone Peak
72 — Millie Terrion, Herriman
77 — Victoria Romney, Corner Canyon; Victoria Castro, Davis
80 — Caylyn Ponich, Davis
81 — Maybel Harris, Lone Peak; Whitney Banz, West
82 — Savannah Romney, Corner Canyon
83 — Rachel Stewart, Lone Peak
84 — Haylee Holmes, Herriman
5A Girls Individual Spring Championship
68 — Lila Galeai, Lehi
73 — Sunbin Seo, Timpview; Claire Whisenant, Skyline
81 — Keilani Hanamaikai and Rachel Lillywhite, Timpview
83 — Savanna Einerson, Bountiful
88 — Sophie Hatch, Orem; Madison McQuivey, Brighton
89 — Ali Efnor, Park City; Lori Hwang, Alta