Freshman Makalea Petrie will represent the Trojans girls golf team at the state competition in Boulder City at the Boulder Creek Golf Club, which will start today at 9 a.m.
Petrie competed at the Southern Nevada Regional Golf Tournament at Mountain Falls last Thursday, and she finished in the top five individuals of teams that didn’t go to state. She squeaked in as the fifth golfer with a 116 score, with par being 72.
Petrie on the day of the tournament said she was really nervous playing at state, so much so that she was shaking a bit as she spoke to the PVT, but she said she just had to get by the first hole and she would be OK.
“After the first hole I was more confident that I wouldn’t screw up another hole,” Petrie said.
She said it took her awhile to adjust to the wet grass from the earlier rains during the morning.
“I just underestimated how hard I needed to hit the ball in the wet grass,” the freshman golfer said.
Case in point – she had a chip shot on the first hole about 25 yards off the green and she hit a grass cutter, which slowed the ball just shy of the green because the grass was so wet. Normally, on a dry day that ball probably would have rolled on to the green.
“On chipping I just went with the flow,” Petrie said. “I got better and more confident as the day went on.”
Trojans coach Bob Hopkins was pleased with Petrie’s performance.
“She didn’t play as well as she is capable of playing, but played well enough to get in,” Hopkins said. “She has practiced very hard this season, we only hope this drives her to keep up the hard work after the season is over.”
In response to her coach’s comment, Petrie believes she will play more during the offseason.
“Making state has definitely inspired me to play more and work harder,” she said.
In addition to the coach inspiring her, a college scout approached her and let her know she had a lot of potential.
“That was a big accomplishment for me to catch the eye of a college,” Petrie said. “It is nice to know that I am on the right track and I will be looking into playing more tournaments during the summer.”
Petrie said Austen Ancell has had a great influence on how she will be practicing in the offseason.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com. Follow @vernheepvt on Twitter.