Another happy ending
North Point’s Davis wins second straight girls state golf title
COLLEGE PARK — Southern Maryland Athletic Conference golfers were not only well represented on Wednesday afternoon in the second day of the Class 4A-3A state tournament at the University of Maryland, North Point High School sophomore Bailey Davis and Northern High School sophomore Eddie Coffren captured their respective boys and girls individual state titles.
Davis notched her second straight 4A-3A girls state title when she finished the two rounds with a 147 (7374), which ended up being the lowest score of the tournament for either gender. Davis entered the day two shots behind Whitman’s Amanda Levy and one back of Northern’s Elizabeth Coffren, but she vaulted past both and eventually edged Churchill’s Kaylin Yeoh by two strokes.
“Winning my second straight title was really meaningful,” Davis said. “When I started playing my goal was to win four state titles in my four years. The wind was steady throughout the course. I struggled early and finished the front nine with a 40, but I played much better and shot a 34 on the back nine. I thought I was only one stroke up heading to 18, but it ended up being two.”
While Davis had overtaken her rivals in the lead group to win the girls title outright, Northern’s Eddie Coffren, who ended Monday’s round as the leader with a 1-under-par 70, needed two playoff holes to finally edge Westminster’s Aaron Sorkin for the boys 4A-3A title.
Coffren and Sorkin had finished 36 holes at 148, but Coffren parred the second playoff hole while Sorkin double bogeyed.
“When he hit his second shot [on the second playoff hole] short of the green and I was able to reach in two I knew I had some breathing room,” Coffren said. “Then his third shot went well past the hole and then he missed
his par putt. I knew I could be aggressive with my birdie putt, but I was really happy to make that par putt.”
Elizabeth Coffren finished third among the 4A3A girls with a 151, but the performance of the two Coffrens and teammates Johnna Parlett (156) and Andrew Younkers (182) enabled the Patriots to finish second with a twoday total of 637. Urbana of Frederick County (619) easily won the team title, while Northern finished two shots better than Walt Whitman of Montgomery County (639).
“I really was hoping to play better today, especially on the back nine,” Elizabeth Coffren said. “The wind was a factor all day and the greens were really fast. I birdied 16 and 17 to get a few shots back, but overall I wasn’t happy with the round today. I have a few tournaments coming up, including one in Myrtle Beach around Thanksgiving.”
Immediately after Eddie Coffren nailed his par putt on the second playoff hole to seal the boys title, he got a tearful hug from mother, Beth Coffren and a cheerful one from his sister, Elizabeth. Their father, Ed Coffren IV, had promised Elizabeth a new car if she had won the two-day event, a considerable upgrade for the diesel pickup drive with over 200,000 miles she currently drives.
La Plata High School sophomore Gavin Ganter (78-79, 157) was not entirely content with his performance on the second day. Ganter had played one day earlier when the winds were certainly not an issue and temperatures soared past 70 degrees, nearly 20 degrees warmer than on Wednesday when winds returned to their Monday velocity.
Ganter finished his Tuesday round at 6-overpar to earn a berth in Wednesday’s second round. But the Warriors’ team total of 363 was not low enough to enable them to be among the three 2A-1A squads returning for the second day as Jake Ellis (89), Jake Gleason (91) and Jack Koch (105) were well above par and also failed the make the cut which was 85 on Tuesday.
“I was actually 1-under through the front nine then I took double bogeys on two holes on the back,” Ganter said. “The greens were really fast today. If you hit anything past the hole downhill it was going well past the hole. The course was really hard and the winds were definitely more of an issue today than they were on yesterday.”
St. Charles senior Zach Spann (83-81, 164) was pleased with his performance at the two-day event. Spann had gotten accustomed to the course and the windy conditions on Monday and on Wednesday he was able to trim a few strokes off his opening round, something that was in contrast to others who made the cut.
“Overall, I was happy,” Spann said. “I was ready for the winds. They were much more steady today than they were on Monday. But overall, I thought I played better today than on Monday. The greens were really, really fast. It was tough to get the approach shots to bite and then it was tough to putt downhill without running anything past the hole.”
Marriotts Ridge (628) of Howard County claimed its seventh straight 2A-1A title, finishing well clear of runner-up River Hill of Howard County (655).
Northern was the only SMAC team to earn a berth in the second round of the two-day event. In all, only seven SMAC golfers were on hand for the second round of play on Wednesday with two departing with individual state titles.