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PCHS golfers defend home course

Park City s Sarah Marshall holds her follow-through after hitting a shot with an iron on Monday at Park City Golf Course.
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In the last region match of the 2016 season, the Park City High School girls’ golf team was looking to head into the 3A state tournament on a high note.

Though the scores were higher than average at the always difficult Park City Golf Course on Monday, the Miners proved they’re a force to be reckoned with, landing a slew of golfers in the top 10.

"Six of our girls finished in the top nine," Park City Coach George Murphy said. "They played well. It is their home course, but we haven’t played this course a ton because of the weather. They played great today."

The weather that has kept the Miners off the Park City links was a factor again on Monday, with intermittent spurts of rain and occasional gusts of wind. But, Murphy said, the weather didn’t play too much of a factor in the high scores.

"It was off-and-on weather, but the weather wasn’t to blame for anything," he said. "It’s just a difficult course — the scores were super high all around."

Saylor Rabe led all Region 10 golfers by shooting a 10-over-par 82. Sarah Marshall finished right behind her teammate with an 83. Tai Miller recorded a 90 and Grace Donahue finished with a 92. Rabe won the Region 10 overall title, with Marshall taking second place. McKenzie Schow finished fourth, Miller took fifth and Sage Roberts placed 10th overall. The Miners finished 330 strokes ahead of second-place Stansbury in region play.

Murphy said the entire team is playing well, but they’ll need to keep it up for the next week if they want to win the 3A title at Soldier Hollow May 18-19.

"We’re just looking for these girls to keep their confidence up," he said. "We don’t have another tournament between now and state. We’ll definitely get down to Soldier Hollow and make sure they’re ready and comfortable with that course."

With the strong performance on Monday under their belts, Murphy said the Miners are feeling good about their state title hopes.

"We’re happy with where they are," he said. "We’re heading in the right direction and our top five or six [players] are strong."

As evidenced by the Miners’ high scores at the Region 10 Championship at Soldier Hollow last week, Murphy said nothing can be taken for granted on the Gold Course.

"It’s hilly and it takes its toll on them," he said. "There are some long holes and it gets windy on the back nine."

Still, Murphy added, the Miners should have a leg up on their 3A competition thanks to the proximity of the course to Park City and the way they’ve been playing of late.

"They’re swinging great," he said. "They can keep working on some little things here and there with their short game, but they had a great season. We’re right there where we need to be heading into the state finals against Desert Hills and whoever else around the state has been playing well."

After a narrow second-place finish to Desert Hills at last year’s state tournament, the Miners are anxious for a shot to dethrone the Thunder.

"They want to beat them," Murphy said. "Whatever happens happens, but they’ll try their best. The pressure isn’t really on us, it’s on Desert Hills to hold their scores and keep their title. We want to do our best to knock them off."

The 3A state championships will be held on Soldier Hollow’s Gold Course. The two-day tournament begins May 18.


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