By the closest of margins, the Lady Greyhounds kept their postseason alive in last week’s area tournament.
By one single stroke, Jones County edged Ola with an overall score of 306, good enough to claim the fourth and final qualifying spot for the sectional round, held earlier this week. That event’s top two finishers will join others to have already qualified for the state tournament May 20-21 in Waycross.
In the postseason format used by the GHSA, each team can enter five golfers with the top three scores counting toward the team’s overall total. Kimber Kent put JCHS in good position, firing a round of 85 that was fourth-best overall, earning all-area honors.
But when Ola’s second- and third-best scores ended up being 108 and 109 combined with Karlie Hoffman and Sara Utley having rounds of 118 and 119, the Lady Hounds were in dire need of having to make up ground. That’s when a familiar theme from recent postseasons emerged for JCHS – freshmen stepping up. Kyndel Thomas did just that, posting a round of 103 that was just enough to get the Lady Greyhounds an overall finish of fourth.
“It’s funny how things happen. Karlie was a freshman who saved us, and Kimber was before that, and this year I have another freshman who did,” JCHS golf coach Lance Pittman said. “Sometimes, you are too young to feel the pressure. They end up performing well.”
Pittman added another factor in the razon-thin win.
During the round, Pittman and Hoffman noted that the Ola player in her playing group had a score of seven on the previous hole that was scored as a six on the scorecard. Hoffman, Pittman said, approached the Ola competitor and both agreed that she had a score of seven on the hole, a stroke that ended up being the difference between the Lady Greyhounds’ season continuing.
“They have to all agree before they get to the next tee box,” Pittman said. “That stroke right there, it’s what we won by.
Players during a round forget strokes like that all the time. We needed it; we’re still alive.”
The youth-laden Greyhounds saw their season end with a finish of sixth and overall score of 357. JCHS was led by Ben Ridley’s 82, Cash Bearden’s 90, Dixon Dowling with a 91 and Barrett’s Beasley’s round of 94.
