Seven Lakes weathers scare for regional title
MONT BELVIEU — Based on its strong play over the first 34 holes around Eagle Pointe Golf Club, Seven Lakes had easily secured a spot into next month’s state tournament. And with the Class 6A Region III girls golf tournament winding down to the final two holes Wednesday, winning the team title was pretty much a given for the Lady Spartans.
Then things got beyond interesting. Seven Lakes’ best player — and one of the state’s top golfers — Isha Dhruva took a nine on the par-5 No. 17 hole.
“She hadn’t shot a nine since she was probably 9 years old,” Seven Lakes coach Sean Ewing said.
And by the time Dhruva bogeyed No. 18, nervous coaches from Seven Lakes and Kingwood were quickly doing math, adding up their respective team’s four lowest scores of the day.
It didn’t matter that both schools, as well as Clements, were easily inside the cut line for being state-bound (May 21-22 at Legacy Hills Golf Club in Georgetown). Each school wanted that regional title trophy.
When the scores were tabulated, it was Seven Lakes on top by one shot for its first girls regional crown. The Lady Spartans shot a two-day 54-over-par 630 to just hold off the Kingwood A team. Clements was third at 62-over 638.
“Wow, it’s crazy,” Ewing said. “I thought we had it in the bag and all of a sudden just watching it slip away stroke after stroke after stroke. “We can’t have meltdowns like this at the end, we got to finish strong. And we did not, but we finished strong enough.”
Seven Lakes gave seven shots back to par over the final two holes.
While the team competition came down to the end, there was no suspense in the individual competition. Clements sophomore Anne Chen, who led by as many as eight strokes in the final round, won by four shots over Tompkins’ Elina Sinz. Dhruva and her Seven Lakes teammate Lauren Nguyen shared third at 4over 148.
Chen, who finished third in regionals last year, made only one bogey over two days. Her 7-under 137 is the lowest girls score at a regional at Eagle Pointe. The course has been the regional site since 2001.
“It feels good to win it this year and have our team advance to state,” said the 16-year-old Chen, who has played in two LPGA tournaments, including last year’s U.S. Women’s Open. “So I’m excited for that. It could have gone better like always, but overall it’s pretty good.”
Headed to the state tournament as individuals are Sinz, Pearland’s Kendall Jackson and Reagan Gray of Ridge Point.