PHOTOS: Bentonville edges Fayetteville, wins third straight state crown

FAYETTEVILLE -- A playoff hole gave Kinslee Miller a chance to seize redemption -- for herself and for Bentonville High's girls golf team.

The senior landed a fairway shot on No. 18 within a foot of the hole, then dropped in a birdie putt to help the Lady Tigers win the Class 6A girls state golf championship Wednesday at Fayetteville County Club. Miller and Lauren Pleiman combined to shoot a 7 on the playoff hole, three strokes ahead of Fayetteville's duo of Anna Ziegler and Elizabeth Atchley.

"I was just hoping it got over the bunker," Miller said. "I didn't know if it had gone in or it was close because everybody was screaming. That helped a lot.

"It was crazy. I was just hoping Lauren would two-putt and make bogey, but she made hers for par. I told myself I can just tap this in. I had a long day of putting, so it helped to make that 1-footer."

The final hole had not been a good one for Bentonville as they lost a six-stroke lead to finish the second round and finished deadlocked with Fayetteville at 530. Miller and Lauren Milligan each had double-bogeys and Pleiman had a triple bogey for the Lady Tigers, while Fayetteville countered with pars by Ziegler and Anna Rechtin and a bogey by Atchley.

That led to the return to No. 18 for the playoff hole, and all four girls placed their tee shots into the fairway. Pleiman's second shot hit the green before going to the fringe, then Ziegler placed her shot on the green before Miller set the stage with her heroics.

"I watched Lauren hit before me, and she hit a safe shot just right," Miller said. "I said to myself I guess I could go for it, and it was right between clubs. It was about 117 yards, so I used the pitching wedge and choked down."

Fayetteville's cause wasn't helped when Atchley had her second shot go over the green and out of bounds, and she wound up with a double-bogey to go with Ziegler's par.

Cabot then surpassed Springdale Har-Ber to take third place as the Lady Panthers shot a two-day total of 540 while the Lady Wildcats finished at 543.

Meanwhile, Mackenzie Lee had such a comfortable lead that she had just one thing on her mind while she completed her round at the Class 6A state girls golf tournament -- she wanted to finish the round under par.

The North Little Rock sophomore accomplished that mission Wednesday afternoon, thanks to a birdie on the par-3 No. 17, as she shot a 1-under 70 and repeated as state individual champion with a convincing victory at Fayetteville Country Club.

Lee, who has already drawn interest from Arkansas and three other major colleges, finished with a two-day total of an even-par 142. Lauren Loeb of Mount St. Mary, who was seven strokes back to start the second round, finished with a 157, 10 strokes ahead of third-place finisher Grace Kilcrease of Springdale Har-Ber.

"I just wanted my putts to work better than they did (Tuesday)," Lee said. "Something else was the mistake. My drivers were really inconsistent. They were right on line in the first round and going further. This time, my drives weren't going as far and they weren't going straight. Some went left and some went right -- just everywhere."

Lee bounced back from a bogey on No. 2 with back-to-back birdies on the seventh and eighth holes to put her 1-under through Wednesday's front nine. She went back to par with a bogey on No. 10 but managed to stay there until the 17th, when she birdied that hole.

"Thinking about my score makes it harder for me to play good," Lee said. "I just need to win; I don't need to think about the scores too much. On the other hand, when I'm leading by a lot and my goal is to shoot lower, it's a little stressful when I get a bogey or barely make par on holes.

"The front nine was a little decent, but the back nine was a little tough when I started off with that bogey again."

Sports on 10/03/2019