Chipps, Widman both get personal bests, help Lady Zs knock off Plymouth, Bremen

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

• 

• 

Audrey WIdman Lily Chipps

Molly Moore was the medalist for the Rochester girls golf team in a home win over Plymouth and Bremen over the back nine at Round Barn Golf Club at Mill Creek, but that only tells part of the story three days before the Three Rivers Conference tournament.

The other part of the story is No. 3 player Lily Chipps and No. 4 player Audrey Widman, each of whom shot a personal best 49 for nine holes in support of Moore and No. 2 player Lexi Haughs.

Rochester finished with a 180, Plymouth had a 208, and Bremen had a 250.

Moore shot a 38, Haughs had a 44, and Makenna Jackson had a 69 to round out the Lady Z scorecard.

The 180 was the team’s best score for nine holes, and it came one day after beating defending sectional champion Logansport in a nine-hole match.

Zoey Blakesley shot a 68 for the Rochester JV.

Rochester coach Dan Bailey said he has been working with Moore on a more advanced level.

“She’s been struggling for Molly, I guess,” Bailey said. “And I think a lot of it is we’ve been working on some things. Molly is good enough that I’m trying to help her get ready to play at the next level if she decides to, and so we’ve been working on hitting some specialty kind of shots that she’s just not real comfortable with. So the great news for me from a coach’s standpoint is I see her trying to do that out on the course, and she’s just not comfortable with it yet.

“Tonight was a very good round, and I think that’s where she expected to be, between 36 and 39 pretty much every night. And tonight she was there for sure, but I think a lot of the scores that are not great for her, I have to take credit for some of them because I’m asking her to do something that she’s not comfortable doing yet, and she’s all in and trying to do it. We’re thinking bigger picture for her than scores on a nine-hole match of whatever.”

Widman was dealing with injury and illness issues earlier in the season, according to Bailey.

“I feel pretty good,” Widman said. “It took quite a bit to get there, but I just feel like everything was connecting really well tonight. I felt pretty confident and pretty rested, so I think it was a good night for me.”

Widman’s previous personal best was a 53 at Round Barn on Tuesday in a one-shot win over Logansport. Her personal best for 18 holes was a 109 at Battle Ground Golf Club at the Lady Broncho Invitational Saturday.

Said Bailey: “It’s just not normal to see somebody get a personal best  and then turn around and get a personal best and then around and get a personal best. That just doesn’t happen very often. I think a lot with her was she had a good round, and that builds a little bit of confidence in her.”

Widman said she is feeling confident using her driver, and she outdrove her playing partners Tuesday by large margins.

“At Battle Ground, I worked with my driver a little bit more on the driving range,” Widman explained. “So I was like, we’re just going to try it out and see if it works. So there, I tried it out, and it worked the whole entire match. I got really lucky, so then I’ve been able to carry that over to this week. I think that has helped shave off a lot of my strokes.”

Bailey also praised Chipps and her driving in recent rounds.

“She made some strides earlier in the year,” Bailey said. “Struggled at the beginning. We had some discussion. We did some things on the range, and I think something clicked for her. She’s had several PRs this year too. So it’s nice to see them click, for sure. Mainly because they can see what they’re capable of, and that tends to lead to a little more intense practice. It leads to a little more intense focus.

“Once you can see what you can do, they want to repeat it. That was a really good thing that both of them are starting to see what it can be, and I think that has driven them to want it to be that way more often.”

Meanwhile, Haughs scored right in the 40-45 range that Bailey was judging would be a good round. Bailey said Haughs also frequently has more length off the tee than most of her playing partners.

“That’s an advantage for her, for sure,” Bailey said. “The mental part, I’m really happy with yesterday and today. She does put a lot of pressure and expectation on herself, but it sometimes manifests itself negatively with her. … So last night and tonight, I think we made some strides. She asked to go to the driving range, so we went and worked on some stuff today before. (We) specifically worked on her driver. I feel like it clicked. We found some stuff with her, and she hit it pretty well today. We’re looking at this as yesterday and today was a step in the right direction.”

at Round Barn Golf Club at Mill Creek Wednesday (back nine, par 36)

ROCHESTER (180): Molly Moore 38, Lexi Haughs 44, Lily Chipps 49, Audrey Widman 49, (Makenna Jackson 69)