By STEVE WILLIAMS
Just moments after Victoria Allred captured her second Carolinas Golf Association Junior title in early August, she was already looking ahead to 2013.
“I’m excited,” she said after winning the Dogwood State Junior Championship at Starmount Forest Country Club, “I’ll be able to play on the Carolinas team again next year. I really loved playing in that this year.”
Allred was part of the Carolinas team that won the 11th Mid-Atlantic Junior Girls Team Matches at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, Va., July 28-29. Her win in singles helped the North Carolina and South Carolina players turn back their Virginia and Maryland counterparts by an 8.5 to 3.5 margin.
Participation on the Carolinas team is reserved for players who win major CGA junior events in the year prior to the tournament. Allred qualified for this year’s team by winning the Twin States Junior in 2011.
Allred, a junior at Reagan High School in Pfafftown where she is the defending state 4-A champion, followed up her team triumph with two individual wins. Just a couple of days after the Mid-Atlantic and 10 days before winning the Dogwood State, she claimed a huge win on the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Tour. Playing at the University of Virginia’s Birdwood course in the Boars Head Inn Classic, she shot 72-72 and rolled to a six-shot victory. The runner-up was Amanda Hollandsworth, who had won the Virginia state junior championship the previous week.
“This one was a little tougher,” Allred said of the Dogwood field. “That one (PKB event) didn’t have as big a field of girls. However, I had to battle the Virginia state champion.”
The field also included Lyberty Anderson, the top ranked junior in Virginia.
Back in North Carolina at the par-72 Starmount course, Allred opened with a 3-under-par 69 but suffered a costly triple bogey in the second round that was part of a disappointing 78. That left her a shot off the pace of Ashlii Thompson of Brown Summit, who posted a pair of 73s.
It was pretty much a match between Allred and Thompson in the third round although seventh-grader Gina Kim of Chapel Hill remained within striking distance before settling for third, four shots off the pace with 74-75-75.
Both Allred and Thompson played the front nine in round three with 1-under-par scores. Allred got even when Thompson bogeyed the 11th and she took a two-shot lead after Thompson had two more bogeys at 13 and 14.
After both players bogeyed 15, Thompson got within one when Allred failed to get up and down at 16.
At the par-3 17th, both players hit close to the pin but couldn’t convert the birdie chances. Allred then clinched it with a par at the par-5 18th despite blocking her drive far right of the fairway.
“I knew it was a par-5 and I just had to get it out in the fairway, get it on the green, two-putt and get out,” Allred said. “I left a couple out there, but it all turned out good.”
Thompson, who won PKB one-day events at Forest Oaks and Bermuda Run earlier this summer, lamented the missed 6-foot birdie chance at 17.
“I almost had it … if I had hit it a little softer,” she said after closing with 75. “Victoria played solid. We both made mistakes but she made a few less than me.”
Richards wins junior T of C
PINE LEVEL • Aug. 14-15 – Davis Richards of China Grove birdied his final two holes to get into a playoff and then rolled in another birdie on the first extra hole to win the TYGA Tournament of Champions at Cardinal Golf Club.
Richards shot 72-70 to tie Hunter McCombs of Morganton after 36 holes.
Jake Kennedy of Mount Ulla took third with 70-73, missing out on the playoff by one shot.
Richards, a sophomore at South Rowan, qualified for the T of C by winning the TYGA One-Day event at River Run in Davidson in June. Kennedy, a junior at West Rowan, earned his T of C invitation by winning at Jamestown Park in late July.
Brantley leads Carolinas win
DURHAM • Aug. 11-12 – Daniel Brantley closed out his junior career with a bang, helping the Carolinas team to a nine-point win in the 30th Virginias-Carolinas Junior Matches at Hope Valley Country Club.
Brantley, the state 3-A champ from Asheboro High School who will play collegiate golf at UNC Charlotte, scored three points to help the Carolinas to a 12.5 to 3.5 margin.
Brantley and Carter Jenkins of Raleigh were the only players to finish with three points for the Carolinas team. He won a singles match 2 up, teamed with Victor Wiggins of Gastonia for a 7-and-6 win in foursomes and paired with Jeremy Grab of Daniel Island, S.C., for a 4-and-3 win in four-ball play.
