2016 Walker County Golfers of the Year

It was eight years ago that a sophomore at Gordon Lee named Rachel Mason claimed the individual title at the GHSA Class 1A state tournament.

Mason shot an 83 in Waycross that day, while an 88 by her teammate Jordan Watson gave the Lady Trojans their second team championship in a five-year span.

Gordon Lee has not had an individual or a team state championship in girls’ golf since, but that may all change by next year.

The Lady Trojans — fifth overall in Class 2A back in May — will bring back three of their four players who made up the varsity roster as freshmen this spring and the Navy-and-White will be dropping back down to familiar confines of Class 1A Public.

And undoubtedly one of the favorites to win the individual title will be rising sophomore Macall Miller, the 2016 Walker County Girls’ Golfer of the Year.

After showing off her game by finishing tied for third among all golfers at the North Georgia Athletic Conference (middle school) tournament in 2015, big things were expected from her as she teed it up as a freshman.

And big things were delivered.

“I knew about her and how she played before she started high school,” said Gordon Lee golf coach Shonn Weldon. “I knew she was a good ball striker. She has no problem hitting the ball a long way. It was just going to be a matter of her pushing herself and seeing her scoring progress and she ended up breaking 80 twice, the last time coming at the state tournament.”

Miller helped the Lady Trojans to a fourthplace showing at the LaFayette Invitational in late March, finishing only behind Calhoun, Dalton and North Murray that day. Calhoun and Dalton went on to win the state titles in Class 3A and Class 5A, respectively, while North Murray placed fourth in Class 3A.

But Miller saved her best for last as she posted a sparkling round

It’s been said numerous times over the past few years, but it bears repeating — the northwest Georgia area has more than its share of talented young golfers.

And in Walker County specifically, selecting the best of the best among this year’s bumper crop of boys’ golfers proved to be an extremely difficult task.

Convincing cases could be made for several golfers, but in the end, it was hard to go wrong with LaFayette sophomore Gage Smith who takes home the title of Walker County Boys’ Golfer of the Year for the 2016 season.

On just about any typical day, you can find Smith on the course, working hard to hone his prodigious talents.

Smith said he’s played golf for as long as he can remember, walking the course and working on his game with his father.

After numerous youth and middle golf honors and awards, Smith found a home on the varsity roster as a 14-year-old freshman.

He introduced himself to the rest of the Georgia prep scene with a 3-under par 69 at the Region 7-4A tournament to win the individual title and lift the Ramblers to the team title. He went on to shoot 77 in his first GHSA state tournament, helping LaFayette to place third overall.

And it was more of the same in 2016.

He was named to the All-Tournament Teams at the Athens Classic — where he shot a 73 — at the North Georgia Invitational, where he shot 76 at the Dalton Golf and Country Club and at The Farm. LaFayette placed fourth in Athens and third at the NGI and the Ramblers took second at their own LaFayette Invitational where Smith carded an even-par round of 72.

“I had a good year,” he explained. “I didn’t exactly shoot the numbers I wanted to shoot as far as a low round, but my goal was to average 75 for the year and I came in at 74.8, so that was pretty good.”

“Gage had what has to be consider a typical ‘Gage year’,” LaFayette

of 79 in the Class 2A state tournament at the Applewood Golf Club in Keysville.

“It was a really good year,” Miller said. “My goal was to break 80 and to do it at the LaFayette tournament and then do it again at state was really good.”

Miller, the daughter of a golf pro, says she played tournaments last summer to prepare for this spring and knew there was pressure on her to perform.

“I knew my coach had a lot of expectations for me and he really wanted me to win state,” she said. “It was a little sad that I didn’t (win), but it was still a good year all the way around.”

“She played a lot of individual tournaments

(in the off-season) and I think she saw a lot of really good golfers in Calhoun and Dalton, which showed her what she really needed to work on,” Weldon added. “I think as she continues to work on her short game, her scores will continue to improve. With her dad being a golf club pro, so she’s got a good head for it and, being an athlete, she’s got a lot of strength.”

Miller, a competition cheerleader in the fall, said her goals for next year were to consistently shoot in the 70’s and put up a 75 or lower in the 2017 state tournament.

Numbers like those will likely get the job done. Had the Lady Trojans played in the Class 1A (Public School) tournament this year, they would have won the team title by 15

strokes, while Miller’s 79 was 14 shots better than this year’s individual state champion in that classification.

“I’m really excited about next year,” she said. “I just have to keep practicing and hopefully go out there at state next year and win. We just had one senior (Avrie Weldon) graduate and we have another good freshman coming up with all we have coming back, so we’re excited about the future.”

“There is going to be a lot of expectations for her, especially starting next year with us dropping back to Class 1A,” Weldon said. “But with her leadership and with her, Jessica (Hickman) and Hannah (Willerson) only getting better and better, the future looks bright for our program.”