Women's Golf: Gators Set 18-hole Team Scoring Record, Fall by 1 Stroke in Playoff to Hanna

by Walt Overbay

After finishing Sunday's first round of the May River Invitational in second place and down a stroke to TL Hanna, River Bluff's women's golf team bested the Yellow Jackets by a stroke on Monday to force a playoff to determine a tournament champion. Hanna emerged as the winner with a one-stroke advantage after the four scorers from both teams played the hole.

The Gators shot an 18-hole team record of 308 for their opening round at the Golf Club at Hilton Head Lakes. This was six shots better than their previous record of 314, which was set earlier in the season, and 20 strokes better than their best round in this same tournament last year.

River Bluff followed up its record-setting round with a 324 for its final round, tied for the best round of the day with Lexington.

This forced a playoff hole with defending AAAAA-Division 2 State Champion TL Hanna (307, 325) to determine the winner. For the playoff, the top 4 scorers from both teams play the same hole, and the lower of the two aggregate scores wins the hole and the tournament. It took the Yellow Jackets one less stroke than the Gators to complete all four turns.

Freshman Kelly Huang finished 3rd overall with a two-day total of 145 to lead the Gators. Sophomore Charli Heaton (151) finished tied for 7th. Rounding out the scoring for River Bluff were Merritt Wham (T-28, 165) and Emery Jones (T-38, 176).

River Bluff finished six strokes better than Lake Mary out of Florida, 11 strokes better than Dorman, and 16 strokes better than Lexington.