Preps

Superstitious Cougar wins title

With good-luck charms by her side, Amy West cards 4-under 68. East Bay takes the team crown.

By Joey Knight
Published October 16, 2007

PLANT CITY - She wore her lucky white Nike hat, carried her lucky ball marker from Innisbrook and set her lucky head cover - in the shape of a buffalo head she calls "Boris" - on the ground facing the tee before each drive.

But Durant junior Amy West wasn't merely superstitious Monday. Mostly, she was just plain super.

Buoyed by an eagle on No.10 - a 370-yard par 5 - at Walden Lake Golf & Country Club, West blistered the back nine en route to 4-under 68 to win the district title and unseat two-time defending champ Shena Yang.

The top three teams, and top three individuals who aren't members of those teams, advanced to next week's region tournament. East Bay got the day's most balanced effort to win the team title with a four-player total of 367. Wharton (369) and Durant (371) followed.

King sophomore Kelsey Gibson finished two strokes behind West to advance. Newsome's Jessica Alexander (83) and Bloomingdale's Tori Saputo (90) were the other individual qualifiers.

West, arguably the district's hottest golfer entering the tournament, shot 4-under on holes 10-13 to finish with 32 on the back nine. Yang, a Wharton junior who watched five putts lip out en route to 3-over 39 on the front, finished third (73).

"I've worked on putting and chipping a lot," said West, who finished the regular season with nine-hole rounds of par, 2 under and 3 under. "I've probably worked on that more than ever this season. And my driver's come a long way, too. It's helped me a lot."

West brandished all facets of her game in three sublime strokes (driver, 9-iron, putter) on the 10th, a straight fairway bordered on the left by water and featuring bunkers directly in front and to the left of the green.

She followed with birdies on the par-4 11th and par-5 13th.

"Honestly, I really didn't know about my score," West said. "I knew about the eagle, of course, but I just let it flow."

Yang, who came in with the district's best nine-hole average (35.8), scored three birdies on the back nine, but they weren't enough to compensate for her struggles on the front.

"I think I could've done better, especially on the front nine," Yang said.

"I have to work, especially on putting."

[Last modified October 15, 2007, 23:32:42]