Roachell holds on to win Overall as a freshman

LITTLE ROCK — To achieve a season-long goal, Conway freshman Summar Roachell had to wait three weeks, five threesomes and an hour Wednesday afternoon at Pleasant Valley Country Club.

Roachell, playing in the first girls group off the tee, posted a 7-over 79 in the clubhouse, then waited the rest of the afternoon for the best high school golfers in the state to best it. None did. Several came periously close.

Roachell, one of the top junior girls golfers in the state for the last couple of years, secured by one stroke the state high school girls Overall title in her first year of eligibility.

“My goal going into this season was to win it, but I didn’t play my best golf, but I’m happy to win,” she said. “It means a lot to win it as a freshman.”

The tournament had been postponed three weeks because of wet conditions on the course. Most of the golfers, including Roachell, had only been able to play two or three rounds during that time because of rainy weather. Several of the golfers, including St. Joseph’s Brooke Enderlin, had basketball games the night before.

“I did as well as a could considering how litle practice time I’d had,” Roachell said. “It was a little frustrating. Today, I drove the ball well and putted good, but I had to get up-and-down a couple of times because I wasn’t hitting my irons as well as I can.”

Roachell was one stroke head of Emily Pyler of Centerpoint and Madison Talley of Clarksville, who won a playoff for second place. Micah Radler of Fayetteville was third at 81.

Most of the challengers came from the final groups, so it made it difficult to determine how firm a foundation that Roachell’s early score rested.

“It’s tough either way, whether you post a score and wait or have to chase someone else,” Roachell said. “It was kinda hard what I did because you really had no idea how the girls behind you were doing. I had no idea whether the 79 would hold up because several players were capable of shooting low numbers. And the last three holes are some of the toughest on the course, so you couldn’t tell. I just put up the number and waited.”

Roachell actually had to quickly grab her putter and some balls as the last group came in with Talley having a chance to force a playoff for first with a par.

She also faced some tense moments from her threesome.

Grier Bennett of Jessieville was a stroke ahead of her going into 17 when she hit the water, then shot herself straight into Murphy’s Law.

Tied with Roachell on No. 18, Bennett found her ball embedded in the root of a tree on her drive and had to take an unplayable lie. She stayed in the woods, then saw her approach shot land in a trap. Her bunker shot hit the lip of the trap and fell back in. Her next shot hit the flagstick and glanced about 10 feet back. She finished with a 10 on the par-5 hole.

“It was my worst hole ever and at the wrong time,” said Bennett. “I don’t know. Everything went wrong.”

Enderlin fired an 85 placing her in a jumble of girls in the middle of the pack.

The course was still wet and the fairways allowed hardly any roll. Shots with any height were often buried.

“It played a lot longer than 5,700 yards today,” Roachell said.