Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Lee makes it three in a row with impressive 7-and-5 win
Mackenzie Lee, the sixthranked golfer in the American Junior Golf Association, says it’s not difficult for her to get pumped up for statewide events like this week’s Arkansas State Golf Association Junior Match Play.
“It’s really a lot of pressure to play in a state event after winning a national event,” said Lee, who won the Callaway Golf Texas Junior Open and the Bob Estes Junior Championship in consecutive weeks in late June and early July. “Because if you don’t win people are going to be thinking, ‘Why did she do that?
“It’s kind of stressful because I knew I had to, like, win today.”
No worries.
Lee won, and she did it emphatically, defeating Little Rock’s Anna Kate Nichols 7-and-5 Thursday at Eagle Hill Golf and Athletic Club in Little Rock to win her third consecutive junior girls title in the Arkansas State Golf Association.
Lee, 16, left no doubt about her intentions from the start, hitting the pin with her approach on the opening hole. The ball rolled just 3 feet, and Lee made her birdie, the first of five she would make over the first eight holes.
“I just knew she was going to play good today after she stuck it on the first hole,” Nichols said.
Nichols, who played solid par golf on the front 9, could not match Lee’s run of birdies.
Lee birdied the par-4 third hole, chipped in from 15 feet for birdie on the par-3 fifth, made a 10-footer for birdie on par-4 seventh, and went 5-up after 8 when she rolled in a 42-foot birdie putt.
Lee said that birdie putt was important because Nichols had a 10-foot look at birdie and a chance to cut into her lead.
“I was honestly expecting to lose that hole,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘Let’s just give it a try at par and if she misses it, we tie.
“I laughed at it, too, when it went in. It flipped things when I didn’t expect it to.”
Nichols, who will be a freshman at Pulaski Academy, said she shrugged off Lee’s chip-in but could only shake her head after the long birdie putt.
“After that, I was just trying to keep it going as long as I can,” Nichols said. “I was just trying to win a couple more holes.”
Nichols won the ninth with a par, and the two halved the par-5 10th with bogeys before Lee regained the momentum.
“I knew it was small mistakes,” said Lee, who will be a junior at North Little Rock High School. “Just had to pay attention more.”
A birdie on the par-5 11th got Lee back to 5 up, and she went 6 up on the par-3 12th when Nichols could not get up and down from the fringe.
Nichols was not hanging her head.
“It’s an accomplishment making it to the finals, playing as well as I did,” Nichols said.
Lee said she had played against Nichols in strokeplay events, but never met in match play.
“Actually, I was a little anxious about it,” Lee said. “I’ve played with her before, but not recently. I didn’t know how good she was.”
Then, she went out and made five birdies over the first eight holes.
“That’s the best I’ve played all year,” Lee said.