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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester girls golf team finished in a tie for 12th at the IHSAA state finals on Oct. 4-5. From left – Molly Moore, Chloe Winn, Lily Chipps, Audrey Widman, Olivia Bailey, Laynie Migonis, Lexi Haughs, Ava Thomas, coach Chad Thomas.
The Rochester girls golf team finished in a tie for 12th at the state finals at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel this fall.
They left a legacy of great golf, inexplicable pain and good food.
Here are some of their stories:
Bailey makes All-State
Olivia Bailey said she did not feel all that great about her 79 in the first round and said she was “a little disappointed” about her 80 in the second round.
Still, she shot a 159 for two rounds, which put her in a tie for 20th among all individuals, and that was good enough to earn her a spot on the all-state team. She also shot a 159 at the 2023 state finals, which put her in a tie for 26th.
In addition to her state spot, she was also the sectional medalist at Tippecanoe Country Club in Monticello on Sept. 23 and the regional medalist at Sandy Pines Golf Club in DeMotte on Sept. 28.
“I was able to come off the back nine and have a better front nine,” Bailey said. “I think it’s a little easier. It’s more open. There’s more areas for opportunity on that nine. And the other nine, there’s just a lot of hazards and trees and things to avoid. So I think that’s why.”
Another trait of Prairie View was its long par 5s. Bailey said she could not reach the green of any of them in two.
“Maybe some of the bigger hitters out here could, but I could not,” Bailey said. “I usually had a 9-iron or a wedge into the greens on my third shot, so they weren’t too incredibly long.”
Bailey was asked about the team’s placing. They shot rounds of 356 and 358 for a 714 total. Rochester had been consistently ranked No. 16 or No. 17 in the state coaches poll all season.
“I think we did really well,” Bailey said. “I would have liked to be maybe in the top 10, but I’m really happy with how our team did, especially for the first time for most of us being at state. I think it was really good.”
Thomas finishes career
Ava Thomas had rounds of 80 and 81 for a 161 total. She described her play as “not amazing.” However, she had only two holes worse than a bogey in her final round, a notable accomplishment given Prairie View Golf Club’s treacherous bunkers.
“I think these bunkers are more difficult,” Thomas said. “The fairway bunkers are because the lip is so sharp, and it’s hard to get out of it the way you would a normal fairway bunker. The greenside bunkers are fine because you can get it up really high, and it will get over.”
Thomas shot rounds of 89 and 86 for a 175 total at the 2023 state finals, where she qualified as an individual and finished in a tie for 60th. This time, she shaved 14 strokes off her score and finished in a tie for 27th.
“It helped a lot because I had already seen it last year, and obviously for our practice round, so that was really good,” Thomas said.
Thomas said she was aware that Rochester, whose enrollment is 473, was the smallest school to make state.
“That’s pretty good I’d say, especially for the size of our school,” Thomas said of finishing 12th. “On the way here, we were talking about cool it was because we were probably the smallest school here.”
Moore’s wrist pain
Freshman Molly Moore shot a 194 over the two-day state finals, putting her in 90th place out of 111 golfers at state.
She did it despite pain in her left arm that radiated from her elbow to her fingers. She said she felt “the sharpest pain” every time she hit a shot.
“My wrist, but we have no clue what it is,” Moore said when asked where the pain was. “We’ve been waiting to go to the doctor until after golf season. But I’m in so much pain. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
She said she had been dealing with it for “a few weeks.” She said she did not know how she originally hurt it.
“I don’t know,” Moore said. “I’m thinking I just duffed a shot really bad, and I hurt it wrong or something. I don’t know, but it keeps getting worse the more I play.”
Moore was asked about her score – she shot 100 in the first round and 94 in the second – given the injury.
“I’m not mad with it,” Moore said. “Obviously, I could have had better. I was hoping higher 80s, but also a 94 is pretty good with a hurt wrist, and I don’t know, freshman year at state is pretty good, I think.”
Haughs’ state journey
Sophomore Lexi Haughs shot rounds of 97 and 103 for a 200 total.
Haughs was asked about the difficulty of the course.
“I feel like it wouldn’t be tough if you were just playing as like normal, but since it’s state, you get really nervous, and you just put so much pressure on yourself that you tend to have bad shots, or mostly like how much sand and water is around. It’s mostly the sand, I think.”
While she did not have a 12 on a hole like she did in her first round, she mixed in more double bogeys and triple bogeys.
“OK, I guess,” Haughs said. “I kind of wish it was a little bit like yesterday but without the 12. … It was a bunch of bad holes. … I don’t even know what happened. I think I just wanted to keep under all the double pars. I didn’t complete that goal, but I had a lot of 7s and 6s. I didn’t go over 7, so that’s a plus.”
She said she tried to treat the state finals like a “normal round.”
“The first day, I would treat it as very nerve wracking for the first hole because there were so many people watching you, and then depending on how many people come to watch the other team and you, it’s very nerve wracking.”
Thomas on returning next year: ‘We’ll see’
Rochester coach Chad Thomas finished his 24th season at the state finals. With his daughter Ava graduating and playing at Grace College next year, he was asked if he will return as coach.
Bailey, Moore and Haughs are all-conference golfers who are expected back next year. Thomas also has high hopes for JV players Lily Chipps, Audrey Widman and Chloe Winn.
Coach Thomas said he was only able to see two of his 11-year-old son Luke’s football games this season. One of them was played the morning of the second day of the state finals.
“We’ll see,” coach Thomas said. “I haven’t made any decisions yet. But it’s one of those things where I’ll have to weigh. I get more and more involved in Luke’s activities too, doing coaching with his sports. … I saw two of maybe eight football games. That’s tough. That is tough. I haven’t made any decisions, but we’ll sit down and soak all this in for awhile and go from there.”
Favorite memories
The girls were asked what their favorite memories were of the state experience.
Thomas said she enjoyed the practice round the day before the state finals started.
She said she will always remember eating at Bub’s Burgers and Ice Cream, a famous restaurant in Carmel.
“I think eating at Bub’s was pretty fun because then Luke and Olivia and I went and took pictures with every statue in downtown Carmel,” Thomas said. “That was pretty fun.”
Haughs said she will remember the meal at Bub’s and a card game.
“We went to a restaurant last night, and we played Uno,” Haughs said. “Ava, Olivia, Laynie, Luke and I. And every time that someone would win, we would all do something. And it made that memory even more memorable, and then I won once, and Luke won one time and got in my face and went, ‘Yeah, in your face.’ And then I won, and I did the same thing.”
Moore will remember the hotel experience.
“Probably just our hotel rooms,” Moore said. “Our partying in the hotel rooms. Oh, and Doordashing four places.”
For Bailey, it was all about the camaraderie.
“Probably finding out that we were going to state and then just hanging out in the hotels, and just having bonding as a team,” Bailey said.
