Class 1A Girls State Tournament

Late stumble leaves Eggers one last shot

GLENWOOD -- The eventual winner thought she had no chance, which was easy to understand.

Caddo Hills senior Katie Eggers trailed County Line senior Brooke Stubblefield by five strokes with two holes to play Tuesday in the Class 1A girls golf state tournament at Glenwood Country Club.

"I knew she was going to win," Eggers said. "I said, 'She's got it.' "

She was wrong.

Disaster struck for Stubblefield, and she and Eggers ended up tied at 15-over-par 87 when they finished their 18th hole, No. 11 on the scorecard. Eggers went on to win the individual title with a par on the second hole of a sudden death playoff.

Sydnee Phillips shot 91 and finished third while leading West Side Greers Ferry to the team championship with a 298 total. County Line finished second at 327, and Armorel was third at 344.

Stubblefield dominated early in a shotgun-start round that the top-seeded group began on No. 12. She was at 2-over 37 after nine holes and led by six strokes. After Eggers bogeyed her 10th hole of the tournament, No. 2, Stubblefield'e lead increased to seven.

Consecutive pars by Eggers on Nos. 6 and 7 cut Stubblefield's lead to four after she doubled and bogeyed the same holes.

Eggers then benefited from a stroke of luck on the tournament's 16th hole when her tee shot on the 246-yard, par-4 No. 9 sailed left. The shot appeared doomed, but it flew between two evergreens four feet apart, missed a spectator's golf cart by inches and bounced down a cart path to 30 yards short of the green.

Eggers' 5-iron shot ended up going 215 yards.

"That was crazy," she said. "I had no idea. I thought I was way off in the woods."

Stubblefield said she could feel her game beginning to fade as her nervousness grew. She chunked two consecutive wedge shots, reached the green in four and two putted for double bogey.

Eggers' second shot flew long into the back fringe. She chipped short, then two-putted for bogey to climb within five strokes with two holes to play.

"Those [pitch shots] are shots I don't miss," Stubblefield said. "I just kept thinking, 'Play your game. Just play your game.' And then I went to 10."

No. 10 is daunting to all comers. It is a 315-yard, downhill par 4 for women, which seems easy enough on paper, but both sides of the narrow dogleg-left fairway slope away from the crown into thick trees.

Stubblefield's tee shot faded hard into woods to the right. Her recovery shot bounced in the fairway and rolled more deeply into trees to the left.

Her third shot, from weed- and twig-strewn dirt, ricocheted off of a tree 15 feet away and landed in bare spot of gravel still 20 yards from the fairway. Her fourth missed trees but rolled across the fairway behind a thick patch of shrubs and weeds.

No. 5 hit yet another tree and landed behind her. The sixth made progress at last but stopped 30 feet from the green. Stubblefield pitched on and two-putted from there for bogey 9.

Eggers hit two shots to the front fringe, chipped to two feet and putted in for par to move into a tie for the lead with one hole to play.

Both bogeyed their 18th hole, the par-5 11th, which sent them into a playoff.

"I've never been through anything like this," Stubblefield said as she fought back tears. "It's taught me that no matter what happens, we're just out here playing golf.

"It's just a frustrating game that I love."

Sports on 10/01/2014

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