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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester accepts the sectional trophy after shooting a 327 at Tippecanoe Country Club in Monticello Monday. They will participate at the Lake Central regional at Sandy Pines Golf Club in DeMotte today. Rochester players will tee off at 10-minute intervals on the front nine from 9:50-10:30 a.m. Eastern. From left – Molly Moore, Ava Thomas, Olivia Bailey, Laynie Migonis, Lexi Haughs.
MONTICELLO — Ava Thomas might be one of the most decorated golfers in Rochester history, and she might have already signed with Grace College to continue her golfing and academic careers, but the desire to improve never goes away.
And that might have had something to do with Thomas shooting an even-par 72, a personal best for 18 holes, at the Twin Lakes sectional at Tippecanoe Country Club Monday.
Thomas lost in a playoff to teammate Olivia Bailey for medalist honors, but she said she had fun during the round.
She said she had made an adjustment to her pre-shot routine recently on the urging of coach Chad Thomas.
“I feel like my new routine that my dad has finally gotten me to do, I think that really helps,” Ava said. “So that’s what happens when I listen to my dad.”
Thomas was asked to describe the routine.
“It’s when I check the face angle with my club with my spine angle and make sure it’s parallel,” Ava said.
Thomas said she was accurate with her driver and called it “one of my favorite clubs.” That led to a round that included one birdie, 16 pars and one bogey.
“Extremely proud as a coach and a father,” coach Thomas said. “It felt like it was a culmination of all of her years of junior golf and hard work in practice and tournaments came together, and she was finally able to let it happen. I told her it was a huge milestone to shoot even par for your first time on 18 holes. It’s something you always want to do every time you tee it up, but do it for the first time at the sectional her senior year is just really, really special.”
She was asked what it was like golfing against Bailey, her best friend, for medalist. Thomas already knew Rochester had won the team title with a 327 before the playoff began.
Thomas recalled the 2022 regional when she and Bailey both shot 83 and pondered the possibility of facing off with her friend in a playoff for a state spot. Ultimately, Thomas and Bailey tied for third among individuals on non-advancing teams at a time when only the top two advanced.
Both Thomas and Bailey advanced to state as individuals in 2023.
“It was not as stressful as I thought it would be because we were almost in this situation a couple years ago at regional, but that was more serious because that was to actually go to state,” Thomas said. “This was just for fun.”
The 327 was the second-best score in school history for 18 holes. It is the lowest raw sectional score of the 15 teams that will compete at the regional today.
Thomas will tee off on the front nine at 10:20 a.m. Eastern today at Sandy Pines Golf Club in DeMotte. She was asked if the team can get even better.
“We’ve always had a team goal of making it to state, and I think we can really do that this year,” Thomas said.
Bailey relies on putting
Unbeknownst to her, Bailey needed a par on the 18th hole at the sectional to win medalist outright. As it turned out, she had to make a tough five-footer for bogey just to finish in a tie with Thomas.
She said winning sectional medalist was one of her goals for the season.
“I was just trying to keep from getting a double bogey,” Bailey said of No. 18. “I was just focused on at least getting bogey after my first shot.”
Thomas, Rochester’s No. 2 player, was playing a hole ahead of Bailey, Rochester’s No. 1 player. Sometimes word gets passed as to how each other is doing.
Little did they know that they would each finish 10 strokes ahead of any other golfer in the field of 55.
“I had no clue, but I thought she was doing well,” Bailey said.
The playoff was actually a rare instance of the friends getting to golf with each other.
“It was fun,” Bailey said. “I felt really bad though because I didn’t want to go against her, but it was fun.”
After her first big putt on No. 18, she then made another five-footer on No. 1 to beat Thomas on the first playoff hole.
Bailey was asked about her putting. She said much has to do with speed control.
“I’ve been working on taking a shorter backswing on my putts so that I’m more accurate, but I think a lot of it is the speed,” Bailey said.
Coach Thomas called Bailey’s putting at the sectional “solid all day.”
“Her putting was solid all day, and making those critical four, five and six-footers, those are huge,” coach Thomas said. “She made a huge putt of that length on 18 to shoot even par, and that was a big deal.”
Bailey also said iron play is important at Tippecanoe.
“The second shot is important because the rough is pretty thick, so if you don’t hit the green, it’s kind of a hard chip onto the green, but I’d say I did a pretty good job of that today,” Bailey said.
Moore improves after tough start
Freshman Molly Moore shot an 85 at the sectional. It might have been lost in the Bailey vs. Thomas hubbub, but while she was third on her team, only two others players among the rest of the field shot a lower number.
Moore had a double bogey on No. 2 and followed with six straight bogeys. But she later had a birdie on the par-3 12th hole.
“Molly, her round was incredibly impressive based on how she started,” coach Thomas said. She was not hitting it good on her warmup, and I know she was very, very nervous. So she really struggled there at the beginning, but she finally got some good swings in and built her confidence up, and for her to come in with a round in the mid-80s like that after how it could have been with how the day started is fantastic. That’s a huge, huge deal for her to gut it out like that and to do that. So I think she learns a lot about how to handle those nerves and how her body reacts. There are some things in her swing that we need to work on for more consistent ball striking, so we’ll be working on that this week.”
Chances at the regional
Rochester shot a 339 to win the Kankakee Valley Invitational at Sandy Pines Golf Club on Aug. 5. Now they will head back there for the regional today.
Lake Central and Chesterton are among the teams they beat at the Kankakee Valley Invitational that they will see again today. Chesterton edged Rochester by one stroke for the final team spot at the 2023 regional at Sandy Pines.
Rochester will try to advance to state as a team for the first time in 11 years.
“The girls just need to realize that they don’t have to have a superman or superhuman round of golf,” coach Thomas said. “They just need to play their best and do their job, and everything will work out the way it is. Golf is the one sport where you can’t play defense. You can’t do anything to prevent the other team from having a good day. The only thing you compete against is the golf course and yourself.
“So it doesn’t matter what any other team in the regional shoots. We’ve got to take care of business that we can control. … If we do that and play like we did (Monday) as a team and be consistent like we have been all year, then it should be a good day for us on Saturday.”
The regional field
Where: Sandy Pines Golf Club, 10527 Bunker Drive, DeMotte
When: 9 a.m. Eastern/8 a.m. Central today
Advancement: Top three teams and top three individuals on non-advancing teams advance to the state finals at Prairie View Golf Club, Carmel, on Oct. 4-5.
From Twin Lakes sectional: ROCHESTER (327), Rensselaer (356), Logansport (361)
From Valparaiso sectional: Chesterton (353), Portage (431), Valparaiso (442)
From Lake Central sectional: Lake Central (340), Munster (379), Crown Point (387)
From LaPorte sectional: LaPorte (397), Knox (411), Marquette Catholic (423)
From Penn sectional: South Bend St. Joe (350), Penn (352), Trinity Greenlawn (439)
Players from non-advancing teams: MIA MCKAIG (PIONEER), Kaylee Anderson (Kankakee Valley), Layla Stearns (Twin Lakes), Emily Mistina (Wheeler), Isabella Senteno (Hammond Noll), Mia Pagone (Wheeler), Margaret Voliva (Andrean), Regan Kats (Illiana Christian), Elle Mowry (Hanover Central), Kerrigan Evans (New Prairie), Emily Snodgrass (New Prairie), Sophia Chaffins (North Judson), Celia Florkowski (Mishawaka Marian), Katharine Swaim (South Bend Adams), Lexington Jenkins (South Bend Riley)
NOTE: McKaig will tee off at 9 a.m. Eastern on the front nine. Rochester’s Laynie Migonis, Lexi Haughs, Molly Moore, Ava Thomas and Olivia Bailey will tee off at 10-minute intervals on the front nine from 9:50-10:30 a.m. Eastern.
McKaig will be paired with Florkowski and Voliva. Rochester players will be paired with players from Lake Central and South Bend St. Joe.
