Photos courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos.
By Ben Reese
WARMINSTER — Youth has taken over the top of the Suburban One League girls’ golf hierarchy.
A sophomore and a freshman tied for the championship at Five Ponds Golf Club on Friday, outdistancing the rest of the field.
North Penn’s Gigi Gratz, the sophomore, and Noor Mehta, the freshman, toured the par-71 course in 11-over-par 82 to share the crown. The closest competitor to the pair was at 18-over 89.
Mehta definitely wanted to take the title. And she wanted to move on to the District One championship next week.
“I wanted to go to districts,” she said.
And when questioned about whether she wanted to win the SOL title, she replied with an enthusiastic “Yeah”.
Mehta wasn’t as pleased with her play, however, despite the victory.
“Honestly, a lot of things went wrong for me,” she said. “I just had some good saves. I think my chipping was working for me today.”
For Gratz, it was a little bit different.
“I thought I was going to do worse,” she said, “but I went out and started with a birdie and kept it going.”
However, she did have some good and bad parts of her round.
“My irons weren’t the best today, but my putting made up for it,” Gratz said. “My putting was excellent today.”
Gratz did indeed open her round with a birdie on the par-4 first hole. But she couldn’t sustain it.
She bogeyed No. 2 and followed that with two double bogeys. A pair of pars followed which helped but then came a bogey and a double bogey for a 42 on the front nine.
Mehta didn’t fare any better. After a par on the first hole, she bogeyed the next five holes, then double bogeyed No. 7, parred eight and double bogeyed nine for a 44 on the first half of the round.
Both players seemed to get things together a bit more on the back nine. Mehta knocked six shots off her front-nine score and Gratz pared off a pair of strokes.
On the back, Mehta opened with three pars. She bogeyed No. 13, parred 14 and bogeyed 15 before finishing with three straight pars.
Gratz opened the back with two pars before stringing together four bogeys in a row. But she finished strong with three straight pars.
In all, the Suburban One League advanced nine golfers to the district tournament, which will be played on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 13 and 14. The girls will open district play at Raven’s Claw Golf \ Club for the first round of the two-round tournament before finishing at Turtle Creek Golf Course. The boys will play both days at Turtle Creek.
Finishing behind Gratz and Mehta were Brie Stwalley of Central Bucks West, Council Rock North’s Mariana Walker and Cora Cortwell of Pennridge all with 89s.
Cheltenham’s Andi Jones shot a 95, Stella Monahan of William Tennent a 97, Pennsbury’s Khloe Lee a 98 and Gigi Lake of Council Rock North a 99.
The cutoff for qualification for district play for the girls was 99. Unfortunately, nine other golfers missed the cutoff.
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