LUMBERTON — A shortened round at Pine Crest Country Club in Lumberton on Monday didn’t seem to faze the Richmond Senior High School girls’ golf team, as the Lady Raiders took home fourth place in its third-straight match to start the season.
Second-year head coach Keith Parsons explained the match was cut in half in order to test the timing of the event. The previous two matches at Pinehurst No. 5 and Gates Four Golf and Country Club saw golfers from the seven Sandhills Athletic Conference teams take extended periods of time to complete their rounds.
Parsons added that he’s not sure if the nine-hole format will stand moving forward or if the matches will return to standard 18-hole play next week.
Winning its third match in a row was Pinecrest High School, which posted a team score of 154 (+10) between its top four golfers. Jack Britt (188, +44) and Purnell Swett (203, +59) took second and third, respectively, finishing ahead of Richmond (233, +89).
In the first nine holes of last week’s match, Richmond tallied a 235, so Monday’s round was a two-stroke improvement.
Scotland High School closed the gap on Richmond, as the Lady Fighting Scots were just two strokes behind the Lady Raiders with a team score of 235 (+91). Rounding out Monday’s score card was Lumberton High School (249, +105).
Senior Hailey Miller stayed consistent for the Lady Raiders, leading the pack with a 46 (+10) on the afternoon. In her previous two matches, both 18-hole events, she recorded scores of 91 both times. The score of 46 at Pine Crest made it her third nine-hole score of that tally this fall.
Sophomore Kenleigh Frye shot a 58 (+22), but it was junior Delaney Driggers who made the biggest jump in Week 3, posting a personal best score of 64 (+28). Competing in just her second career high school match, Driggers took five strokes off her front-nine tally from a week prior.
The fourth score to count for the Lady Raiders came from sophomore Kirsten McDonald, who posted a 65 (+29). Also on the course for Richmond were senior Lauren Humann (68, +32) and junior Angeli Yang (71, +35).
“The improvement shown by Delaney in the past couple of weeks has been wonderful to see,” Parsons said. “She has practiced and gotten better over the past month or so, and she’s showing it on the course. And she’s brand new to the game.
“We’ll see where we go from here,” he closed. “We have the opportunity to play on our home course at Foxfire next week, so that should be to our advantage.”
The Lady Raiders will tee off starting at 2 p.m. at Foxfire Resort next Monday, Sept. 30.
