Greenfield-Central’s Sydnie Wherry hits an approach shot on the first hole at the Hoosier Heritage Conference Girls Golf Tournament at Albany Golf Club Saturday.
Rob Baker | For The Daily Reporter
By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
ALBANY — Greenfield-Central’s Sydnie Wherry entered the season with a personal goal to win what she called, “The Trifecta,” capturing Hancock County, Hoosier Heritage Conference and sectional titles.
With a thrilling win on Saturday, she has now checked off two of those three boxes.
After both girls carded a seven-over-par 78 through 18 holes, Wherry defeated Delta’s Belle Brown in a one-hole playoff at Albany Golf Club to win the individual title at the HHC tournament.
“I’ve worked super hard. I’m at the golf course literally every day, it’s basically my second home during golf season,” Wherry said. “I knew when I came in and my score was posted it was going to be down to me and the girl from Delta.”
On the playoff hole (No. 9), both girls found opposite sides of the rough with their tee shots on the narrow Par 4. Brown was forced to punch back out into the fairway, while Wherry was able to hit a shot that bounced up onto the green. After a near chip-in from Brown to finish with a bogey, Wherry was left with two putts to win. Her first missed long, but she knocked in the second to secure her conference victory.
“It could’ve been better, could’ve been worse,” Wherry said about her tee shot. “I was able to put it up there and two-putt to win. My heart was racing the whole entire time.”
To a spectator, Wherry seemed calm and confident on all four of her playoff-hole shots, but for her it was the complete opposite.
“I was so nervous. I had never been in a sudden-death playoff before so the feeling was all nerves,” she said. “As much as you want to hit a good shot, and you’re just so focused on that, your heart is also racing. At the end it’s definitely all excitement though.”
Greenfield-Central head coach Russ Wiley walked the playoff hole with her and did his best to keep her nerves in check.
“She had a great playoff hole there. I just told her not to be too nervous and to just stick to her pre-shot routine.” Wiley said. “This is the kind of stuff you think about later in life and that it was really fun. Opportunities like this are pretty rare, especially to have a playoff hole in conference or a tournament in general.”
Wherry didn’t let a six-over-par stretch through the first four holes get to her, but knows she’s got some things she can improve on with the sectional just around the corner.
“I feel pretty good,” Wherry said. “If I tweak a couple of things and figure out some yardages I think I’ll be feeling good going into the sectional.”
On the team side of things, New Palestine will be feeling pretty good too after they finished with a team score of 365 and a second-place finish, losing out to only Delta’s 344.
“It’s been a really good season. We’ve had quite a bit of success and it’s really exciting. I was hoping for a top three finish today and it came to fruition,” New Palestine head coach Sarah O’Brien said. “We knew Delta would be the favorite. They’re just a really strong team from top to bottom, but I am super pleased with the way our girls played.”
The Dragons had all four of their scoring golfers finish in the top 15. Katie Kelley led the way with an 89 and seventh-place finish. Zoe Nelson was close behind, placing eighth with a 90. Both earned all-conference honors. By placing ninth and 12th, respectively, Lauren Appleby (92) and Lily Kirchner (94) were honorable mention all-conference.
Hanna Beller added a 103 as the Dragons fifth golfer.
“They struggled a bit on the greens, which were really fast, but overall they really handled it well,” O’Brien said.
While the team has found success this season, New Palestine has had up-and-down seasons from a majority of their individual players, but according to O’Brien, this was the best she’s seen them shoot as an overall team.
“All of them have the ability to go lower, but they kind of fluctuate back and forth,” the coach said. “That’s been the beauty of this team though, they’re super balanced. If someone is having a bad day then others pick up the slack.”
Greenfield-Central followed the Dragons with a fifth-place finish score of 402. Following Wherry’s 78 was Ella Neill with a 97, Laney Elliott with a 109, Reagan Breese with a 118 and Tanessa O’Neal with a 132.
They finished one spot above Mt. Vernon who shot a 408. Izzy VanHeel led the team with a 98. Following her were Gigi Avers with a 101, Kalin Wallpe with a 102, Natalie Miner with a 107 and Kylie Hyde with a 113.
