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- Val T.
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Valley’s Miller shoots 101, ties for 90
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
CARMEL — The winds at Prairie View Golf Course picked up and swirled during the final round of the IHSAA girls golf state finals Oct. 4.
The greens stayed lightning fast. And then there were those deep and difficult bunkers to avoid.
Despite all that, Rochester’s Olivia Bailey said she had fun in her third trip to state, and it showed after she shot a 77 to pair with a first-round 75 for a 152 total.
That score was seven strokes better than both her 2023 and 2024 showings at state, and it allowed her to finish in a tie for eighth place out of the 112 golfers in the field.
It is the best performance ever by a Rochester girls golfer at state. Kinley Lingenfelter had the previous best finish when she finished in a tie for 16th in 2015.
In addition, she was one of 20 players who made the all-state team, and she was also selected for the Academic All-State Team.
Bailey finished in a tie for 26th in 2023 and a tie for 20th in 2024. She was in ninth place after Friday’s first round.
“My goal was to be in the top 10,” Bailey said. “I’m really happy with that. … I think I did a really good job this year. Obviously, I didn’t have my best stuff. I would have loved to hit my irons really well and hit my driver really well. I came out with what I had, and I’m really happy with how it ended up.”
Bailey’s round included holing a 10-foot putt for birdie on the par-3 12th hole. She also had 12 pars, four bogeys and a double bogey.
“I definitely knew I needed to just hit one close and be confident, and so I just told myself to stay committed to the shot,” Bailey said of her birdie. “I hit a good one on that hole yesterday, so I just tried to do the same thing. And then on my putt, I just made sure I got it to the hole. It was uphill, so I knew I could be aggressive at it.”
Bailey parred all four of the par-5s. Typically, Bailey looks at par-5s as birdie opportunities, but the par-5s at Prairie View were too long and too difficult. She finished her round on the par-5 18th hole by putting her second shot in the middle of the fairway. She used her wedge to get on the green within 10 feet and followed with two putts for a par.
“I hit a couple of bad shots on some of the par-5s,” Olivia said. “And so I was happy to par a couple of them, but some of them I did feel like I should have birdied. But I mean, I think if I can par all of them, that’s fine with me.”
Rochester coach Dan Bailey was asked if the par-5s were good scoring holes.
“Number four is one you kind of expect to birdie,” coach Bailey said. “The other ones, they’re long par-5s. You’ve got to hit a good drive, a good second shot, and then you’ve got some kind of wedge into the green – not like most of the par-5s we’ve played throughout the year where she kind of expects to birdie most par-5s. Today was if we could get through the par-5s in 1-under, that would be a pretty good go-round, but even-par today was better than she played them yesterday.”
Olivia said the wind picked up on both the eighth and ninth holes. She bogeyed No. 8 and double-bogeyed No. 9 as she struggled to select a club to account for the wind.
“We misjudged that a little bit,” Olivia said of No. 9. “I wanted to hit a wedge into the green, and it just went over the green. … The wind was into me, but I clubbed up, and it still went over the green. So we were a little confused with that one, but I think it definitely affected that hole.”
Said coach Bailey: “We just misjudged the wind on nine.”
Another issue might have been putting. The greens were fast and might have gotten faster after they baked in the hot, dry conditions.
“Both days, she just didn’t make many putts at all,” coach Bailey said. “And that was really frustrating for her, because coming off a regional where she felt like she made every putt to coming here and she just didn’t get any to fall but still did a really good job of getting it in the hole.”
In addition to making state three times, Bailey completed her high school career by winning sectional medalist twice and regional medalist three times. She made the all-Three Rivers Conference team all four years, never finishing worse than third at the conference tournament.
And that is in addition to numerous tournament medalist honors. She will play collegiately at Valparaiso University next year.
“I tried not to be emotional today because I knew that I had to focus and just worry about each shot,” Olivia said. “But I think towards the end, it got a little emotional. I think everybody – all the seniors – kind of felt it on the last hole.”
Coach Bailey had a slightly different viewpoint.
“She seemed more confident yesterday,” coach Bailey said. “And today I don’t know if it was the finality of it all today, but this morning before we started, she was kind of emotional … and seemed less confident when we were hitting it on the driving range. And then she stepped to the first two tees and blistered one down the middle of the fairways. She did a great job of (what) I call flipping the switch.”
This marks the second straight year that Rochester’s coach oversaw his daughter’s final round at the state finals. Last year, Chad Thomas coached Ava Thomas at state. Ava finished in a tie for 27th, and the team tied for 12th in Ava’s final round as a high school golfer. Ava Thomas is now golfing at Grace College.
Chad Thomas stepped down, and Dan Bailey was promoted from assistant coach to head coach.
“Actually, I’m really good right now,” coach Bailey said. “When she was hitting her last shot into 18, it got close to hitting me. Before I get emotional, I keep looking back at everything she’s accomplished. I was filling out some paperwork and writing all of her accomplishments over the last four years, and I said today before we started, ‘Olivia, what haven’t you accomplished?’ And so for me, it’s been more of a celebration of a lot of hard work, and it’s great to see a lot of hard work pay off. And it has definitely paid off. She’s earned everything she’s achieved. And so I’m in the celebration mode now. And now that this is over, I’m really looking forward to the next chapter.”
Dan Bailey said “I hope so” when asked if he will be the coach next year and added that he “anticipates” being the coach. Both Olivia and twin brother Grant, a member of the soccer, swimming and track teams, will be in college next year.
But he added that they are struggling to get numbers among younger kids. He hopes Olivia will inspire the next generation of Rochester golfers.
Olivia was asked if her final round was fun.
“I was trying to stay focused and trying to compete, but at the end of the day, it was fun,” Olivia said.
Zionsville won the team title for the second straight year with a 607. Noblesville was second with a 629.
Zionsville sophomore Taylor Snively was the state medalist for the second straight year with a 141. She beat Franklin Community’s Lexi Ray by four strokes. Snively is the eighth player in state history to win back-to-back state medalist honors but the first to do so in her freshman and sophomore years.
Savana Miller
Tippecanoe Valley sophomore Savana Miller finished her sophomore season by shooting a 101. She finished with a 192 total for 36 holes and finished in a tie for 90th place out of 112 golfers.
“The win did pick up towards the end,” Valley volunteer assistant coach Chad Brouyette, who walked the course next to Miller both days, said. “I don’t think that affected it much. I think it’s still the course and her getting used to the fact that she’d been able the previous two weeks to have a lot of short irons and wedges into greens, and these last two days, she’s had mostly 6 and 7-irons and a lot of hybrids. It’s just she didn’t hit them that poorly; they’re just harder clubs to hit.”
Miller was playing against the toughest competition she has ever faced.
“She was paying more attention to what was going on around her,” Brouyette said. “There’s a lot of names down here that she knows from summer golf. The state, especially this area right here, is just loaded with great players, and she sees them in the summertime. She knows their names, and she’s looking around and paying attention, I think, to what’s going around her a little bit more than maybe she would be a regular match for sure.”
Brouyette was asked about her personality as a competitor.
“I think she’s got a great mindset,” Brouyette said. “She’s got very little experience in competition at this high of a level, but this weekend aside, these last two weeks, she was able to just stay out of her own way. She just leans into all the work that she does in the offseason, and she goes and gets it. She’s mentally tough. This weekend was kind of a kick in the teeth for her, but she’ll get back up from this.”
IHSAA girls golf state finals
at Prairie View Golf Club, Carmel, Oct. 3-4
Zionsville 607, Zionsville 629, Westfield 640, Carmel 645, Hamilton Southeastern 650, Franklin Community 661, Northridge 678, South Bend St. Joe 690, Batesville 692, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 693, Floyd Central 702, Penn 702, Lapel 710, DeKalb 714, Lake Central 735, Castle 744, Bedford North Lawrence 754, Barr-Reeve 806
Top 10 individuals: 1. Taylor Snively (Zionsville) – 141, 2. Lexi Ray (Franklin Community) – 145, 3. Maya Fujisawa Keuling (Carmel) – 146, 4. Josie Kelley (Noblesville) – 147, t-5. Taylor Larkins (Carroll (Fort Wayne)) – 149, t-5. Kennedy Gutierrez (Valparaiso) – 149, 7. Hannah Ingersoll (Munster) – 151, T-8. OLIVIA BAILEY (ROCHESTER) – 152, t-8. Addison Bright (Franklin Community) – 152, t-10. Alex Reschly (Northridge) – 153, t-10. Ressie Lemmon (Mount Vernon (Fortville)) – 153, T-90. SAVANA MILLER (VALLEY) – 192
