CABOT -- Sydnie Gamble may not have mastered the Greystone Country Club course, but the Greenwood freshman can confidently say the course failed to derail her efforts on a balmy Monday afternoon.
Gamble shot a solid 9-over-par 81 and holds a two-stroke lead going into today's final round of the Class 6A girls state golf tournament.
"In my practice round [on Sunday], I shot a 73," Gamble said. "With the pin placements today, I was hoping to shoot in the low to mid 70s. But I'm OK with what I shot."
Greystone featured its usual challenging layout Monday. With its fast greens playing havoc with the majority of the players, the 5,218-yard course allowed only three of the 46 competitors to break 90. Half of the field failed to score 109 or better.
Jonesboro sophomore Mary Claire Meredith fired an 83 and is in second place. Mountain Home's Leah Rowe came in with an 89.
Greenwood, which earned a 6A-East Conference championship Monday, leads the team competition at 281. Jonesboro is second at 294. El Dorado, which is fifth in the team competition, won the 6A-South Conference title after shooting 318.
Gamble started strong, making par on the first three holes before scoring a birdie on the 250-yard, par-4 fourth.
"When I started parring holes, I started feeling a lot better about myself," said Gamble, who admitted to being nervous as the round started. "It went uphill from there."
Gamble shot a 2-over 38 on the front nine. She stumbled a little on the final nine holes, including double bogeys on both the 350-yard, par-4 17th and the 417-yard, par-5 18th.
"I'm a little upset about that right now, but I'll get over it," Gamble said.
Meredith scored a 4-over 40 on the front nine but also suffered a minor letdown in the late going, shooting a combined 5 over during her final five holes.
"The back nine hurt me because I had not really played those holes before," Meredith said. "But for the most part, I thought I played the course as best I could. If there's one thing I need to improve upon, it's my putting."
Gamble said her short game caused her score to be higher than what she would have wanted.
"My chipping is what killed me today," Gamble said. "I didn't have a blow-up hole, but I had a couple of holes I could have done better on. Other than that, I was content with everything."
Sports on 09/30/2014