Bailey shoots 35, Winn gets personal best as Lady Zs win home opener

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Olivia Bailey

Olivia Bailey shot a bogey-free 35 on the back nine at Round Barn Golf Club at Mill Creek to lead the Rochester girls golf team to a win in a three-way match over visiting Northwestern and Wabash in their home opener Wednesday.

Rochester shot a 171, Northwestern had a 231, and Wabash had a 233.

Bailey birdied No. 14 and parred the other eight holes that she played. Molly Moore added a 41, Lexi Haughs had a 44, Chloe Winn had a 51, and Audrey Widman had a 61.

Bailey, Moore and Haughs had the three lowest scores of the 15 players while Winn and Widman had personal bests.

The back nine at Round Barn features back-to-back par-5s on Nos. 11 and 12. Rochester had only one double par on those two holes while Wabash had four and Northwestern had five.

“It’s kind of a weird set-up,” Rochester coach Dan Bailey said. “You don’t see that a lot on courses. They’re very different holes though. Number 11 is a really difficult par-5. It’s long and has got some trouble. Number 12 is a shorter par-5 where if you hit a couple of good shots, maybe you can score a little bit better on it. … I think we got through it pretty well.”

While Bailey claimed medalist honors, Haughs and Winn might have been the most improved players since the Kokomo Invitational Saturday. Haughs shot a 96 and Winn a 115 at Kokomo.

Coach Bailey said Haughs was her own biggest critic after the Kokomo Invitational. He was asked if she tamped down her self-critiques Wednesday.

“A little bit,” coach Bailey said. “I saw a little bit. She had a rough hole on 17 and hit a couple bad shots. It’s hard for me to know how she managed it because she only had two more holes after that. She was good for most of the day, and it shows in her score. She strung a lot of pars together today. That’s a good step.”

Winn’s score at Kokomo was a personal best for 18 holes, and now she has followed it with a personal best for nine holes. She said a good attitude is a key to good golf.

Coach Bailey called her round “tremendous.”

Winn said one of her personal goals was to get out of each bunker she was in in one shot. She said she accomplished that. She also said she wanted no more than four double pars, and she finished with one. Her other goal was to three-putt no more than three times, and she said she accomplished that too.

“Everything,” Winn said when asked how important a good attitude is to a good score. “Attitude is everything. Because I slowly believe that I play worse when I have a bad attitude. And I have a good attitude in every match that I’ve played in this year.”

Rochester will travel to Stonehenge Golf Club in Winona Lake for a three-way match with Triton and host Warsaw at 5 p.m. Thursday. Like Rochester, Warsaw is a reigning sectional champion

“We’re going to go into tomorrow the same way I think we’re going to go into every match,” coach Bailey said. “And just try to get the girls to focus on the individual goals that they’re trying to accomplish. I think tonight was a good thing for them because they all kept track of their individual goals, and they all saw that when I do this thing – whatever this thing is – when I do it, the end result is a pretty good score.”

In other girls golf news, Rochester dropped out of this week’s coaches poll. They were ranked No. 19 in the season-opening poll last week.

at Round Barn Golf Club at Mill Creek

Rochester 171, Northwestern 231, Wabash 233

ROCHESTER (171): Olivia Bailey 35 (medalist), Molly Moore 41, Lexi Haughs 44, Chloe Winn 51, (Audrey Widman 61)

NORTHWESTERN (231): Lawson 48, Cobble 55, Lock 63, Taylor 65, (White 70)

WABASH (233): Brewer 47, K. Indrutz 54, A. Indrutz 65, Brookshire 67, (Steller 69)