Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, Kafar fired an 84 at the Janesville Regional to advance to sectionals. The Demons totaled a season-best 383 as a team, tying for fourth place with Janesville Craig and Fort Atkinson. Since the top four squads move on to sectionals, the three teams battled in a playoff, with Fort winning with a 22 and Burlington coming in second with a 25.
Craig shot a 28.
Kafar was brilliant on the back-9, firing a personal best 38, the second-best score for the final nine holes at the tournament.
Please check out Wednesday’s Burlington Standard Press for a full story.
By Mike Ramczyk
Leave it to blistering humidity and blinding sunshine to bring out the best in the Burlington girls varsity golf team.
And a week straight of praticing – chipping and putting emphasis – doesn’t hurt, either.
On Sept. 21 at the Southern Lakes Conference meet at Brighton Dale Golf Course, the Lady Demons fired their lowest round at a conference meet with a 390, led by a season-best 18-hole score from senior Kya Kafar.
Kafar’s 88 was good for fourth overall, and her 41 led all participants through the turn.
Head coach Wayne Herrick said after the meet Burlington’s previous best conference score was 403.
Thanks to consistency around the 100 mark from Taylor Myszkewicz (100), Sage Heelein (101) and RaeLee Koehnke (101), the Demons enjoyed their best outing in Herrick’s tenure.
“I’m really happy with our score,” Herrick said. “We’ve always been running between sixth and eighth at conference, We’ve really worked on chipping and putting this past week, and that really helped us. We’d chip and putt for an hour, then go play some holes at Brown’s.”
Herrick said Kafar’s short game was on point, as she totaled five pars on the front-9.
“She was hitting the ball really well off the tee and getting on the green a lot,” Herrick said. “She strung some pars together and is peaking at the right time.”
“It was definitely a very hot day, but we all pushed through and we did well as a team,” Kafar said. “We haven’t got under 400 all year. The ball was kind of like a magnet to the green, it was weird. Everything came into place.”
“We worked on the short game, and those are the strokes that minimize scores.”
Burlington travels to Riverside Golf Course in Janesville for WIAA Division 1 Regionals Wednesday.
At last year’s regional meet, the Demons shot a 403, but Kafar fired an 89 to advance to sectionals at Brighton Dale, where she shot a 103 and failed to advance to the WIAA state tournament.
This year, Kafar has been playing her best golf of the season over the past two weeks.
She is ready for a postseason run.
“I think we can use this as a momentum builder to improve on our scores,” Kafar said. “I think I can do better. I’m not putting pressure on myself to make state. Hopefully, we can make sectionals as a team.”
Hannah Ketterhagen added a 107 for the Lady Demons at conference. Her score was dropped.
While the competition will be strong in Janesville, Herrick said his squad should compete.
“We have to beat Badger to make it to sectionals,” he said.
Kafar earned second team all-SLC honors.
Koehnke was named honorable mention.
SLC Golf Tournament
Sept. 21, Brighton Dale Golf Course
Team results – Union Grove 367. Lake Geneva Badger 376. Waterford 384. Burlington 390. Wilmot 407. Elkhorn 424. Westosha Central 464.
Individuals – Holly Murphy, LGB, 83. Jackie Bianchi, UG, 84. Keegan Destree, WIL, 85. Aubrie Torhorst, WAT, 88. Kya Kafar, BUR, 88. Sydney Staaden, UG, 92. Kayla Kerns, LGB, 93. Megan Koch, UG, 93. Maddy Anderson, WAT, 93. Kristin Walczynski, LGB, 97.
Overall Standings
UG 6-0. LGB 5-1. WAT 4-2. BUR 3-3. ELK 2-4. WIL 1-5. WC 0-6.
First team
Murphy, Destree, Bianchi, Torhorst, Koch. Player of the year – Murphy.
Second team
Staaden, Kafar, Anderson, Kerns, Afton Malvitz, ELK.
Honorable mention
Koehnke, Ava Greeley, ELK, Madison Whitehead, LGB, Veronica Parco, UG, Natalie Horn, WAT, Grace Anderson, WC, Madison Bailey, WIL.
-
-
-
-
-