PR’s Horgan ‘in shock’ after 1-stroke win
BULL VALLEY – Katelyn Horgan looked at the scoreboard when she finished her round Wednesday at the McHenry County Girls Golf Meet and couldn’t believe her eyes.
The Prairie Ridge senior, who came into the second day of the meet three shots out of the lead, shot a 5-over-par 40 to finish at 12-over 82 for a one-shot victory against teammate Allison Holly at Boone Creek. Huntley’s Katlyn Anderberg and Marian Central’s Samantha Leicht each finished two shots back. Horgan said that she was stunned by her victory.
“I wasn’t expecting to win, I was hoping to come in second,” Horgan said. “When I heard I won, I was in tears. I’m proud of myself for doing that, but I’m in shock.”
Horgan added that it wasn’t a real good round for her, at least to start.
“It started off pretty rough,” Horgan said. “I was on the bogey train since that‘s all I could get. Around the fifth hole, I told myself I was going to par the rest. I ended up parring most of them, but I bogeyed the last hole. It just all came together, I guess.”
Holly, who started the day a shot ahead, shot a 44 in finishing behind Horgan and said that the windier conditions on the second day made scoring harder.
“The wind was pretty rough out there,” Holly said. “I started out pretty good with a par at the par-5 first hole. On every other hole, though, there was something small that I was doing wrong, but that’s golf.”
Prairie Ridge (347) won the team side of the 10-team event. CL Central (355) finished second, and Marian Central (359) was third. Richmond-Burton (390) was fourth followed by Huntley (394), McHenry (416), Jacobs (420), Marengo (429), Harvard (449) and Johnsburg (518). Wolves coach Patti Hie said that she had a goal for her players during every day of the meet.
“We played two practice rounds out here last week and shot 168 and 170, so I told the girls I thought low-170s each day would win it,” Hie said. “I was pleased to come in with a 169 in competition [during Tuesday’s first day], but we knew coming in that we couldn’t make drastic mistakes. We pretty much had to play the way we played [Tuesday] and not implode and we’d be OK.”
Hie added that the leadership of Horgan and Holly had been important this season.
“They work so hard for the program,” Hie said. “They both have had pretty steady years. Allison has been our leader, but Katelyn has been more consistent this year. Katelyn told me before the round [Wednesday] that all she wanted was for her and Allison to go 1-2. I told her that the way you’re playing the last few weeks, you could win this. The look of surprise and excitement on her face when she came in was wonderful.”