South Rowan’s Alexandria Bare will play in the 3A state golf tournament at Foxfire Resort and Golf Club on Oct. 28-29.
Bare qualified Monday by shooting 94 in the 3A Central Regional tournament held at Meadowlands in Winston-Salem.
Three teams — Ledford, Northern Guilford and Cardinal Gibbons — qualified, as well as the top 17 individuals from girls not on those three teams.
Scores were high, with Ledford’s Alexis Kershaw (73) and Central Davidson’s Victoria Hedrick (79), the only ones to break 80.
“The course was pretty brutal,” South coach Perry Bradshaw said. “The greens were fair, but the fairways were tight. You could hit a good shot and still be in trouble. It was also easy to lose a ball in the leaves.”
Bare shot 87 in the recent SPC tournament, but she had some struggles, especially early in Monday’s round.
“She had some double bogeys and even a triple bogey, I believe, but she just kept fighting back, and that’s what made me so proud of her round,” Bradshaw said. “If she had a double bogey, she’d come right back with a par. At one point, she looked at me and said she just wanted this round to be over, but she hung in there. She was determined to finish strong and she did.”
Bare, a junior parred 16 and birdied 17, and that moved her into a comfortable position among the qualifiers.
“She’s a great story,” Bradshaw said. “She’s been playing hurt, with a brace on her back, but she’s our lone qualifier from the (3A) county schools.”
There is no “triple bogey rule” in regional and state tournaments, and that contributed to some unusually high scores. In regular high school matches, girls pick up their ball after, for instance, their seventh shot on a par 4 hole.
East Rowan’s team finished 10th at 349, while Carson finished 11th at 376.
East’s Kathryn Marcum shot 101. West’s Savannah Lloyd shot 108. Carson’s Adison Collins shot 110. East’s Grace Stokes shot 121. East’s Riley Padgett shot 127. West’s Kelly Boley shot 128. Carson’s Alishia Sears and Katlyn Smith shot 133s.
Cox Mill’s Jaime Cassell, the SPC champ, shot 87 and finished 10th.