Murray County’s Tori Owens wins state title

Published 8:20 pm Wednesday, May 23, 2018

A half hour is a long time to wait. Especially if you’re waiting to see if you’re a state champion.

It was a nervous time for Murray County’s Tori Owens. Coming in to Tuesday’s second and final round of the Class 3A state golf championship at Cateechee Golf Club in Hartwell, the junior was four shots off the lead in a tie for third with a familiar foe, North Murray High School’s Shelby Satterfield.

Owems proceeded to put together the round of the week posting a 1-under-par 71.

But it took some time for all the scores, including from those tied or ahead of her, to come in.

“I wanted to throw up,” Owens said of the waiting period. “I had to wait a good 30 to 40 minutes. I knew (Satterfield) was 1-under at the turn, I was ready to throw up.”

Satterfield checked in with a 74, three shots behind Owens. The last score to wait on was that of Eujin Pyon of Rutland High School, the overnight leader who started the day four shots ahead of Owens. Her score finally came in at a 77, placing her two shots behind Owens.

It became official, Murray County High School’s Tori Owens was the Class 3A girls state champion.

“I’m still kind of surprised,” Owens said shortly after the official declaration was made. “It honestly hasn’t hit me right now just yet. I’m just still kind of surprised by the whole thing.”

After shooting a 78 on the first day of play, Owens kept her mind focused on staying even on Tuesday, not trying to post an insanely low score.

“Today I came in thinking about par and how to stay at par, save par on each shot,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about going 6 under, just wanted to play a good round.”

Owens closed Tuesday strong with birdies on her final two holes. She said on the final putt she began to think about the magnitude each putt had.

“On 17 and 18, I birdied both of them. On 18 I was so nervous about the putt, I was shaking I was so nervous,” Owens said. “On 17, I was just trying to get back. I bogeyed 16, I was just want to go back to even. I thought even would put me in a good place. I went to 18 and I was thinking on my approach, just put it in the middle of the green, two putt and let’s get out of here. I hit within about 10 feet. I got up there, there was a big group of people, I had to block everything out. I read my putt and just putted it in.”

Owens said there wasn’t one dominant factor that was the difference in her dropping seven shots from the opening round to the final.

“It was everything,” she said. “I kept it together today. (Monday) I didn’t come in strong. I still managed to shot a 78 which is pretty good, today I came in with a better state of mind.”

Satterfield closed the tournament, and her high school career, in third place. She also led North Murray to a third place finish in the team standings.

“Our girls, I’m just proud of them,” North Murray coach Cody Rainey said. “They worked hard all year. Savanah did a really good job both days. The course was tough for her, but she once again struck the ball very good. A couple opportunities were left on the course, but she improved on day 2 and it was good enough for her to get third place. I’m very proud of her, she’s going to do big things down there when she’s golfing for Georgia Southern (University) next year.”

Also for North Murray on Tuesday, Caroline Ridley shot an 87 and Shelby Satterfield shot a 94. Ridley was tied for 15th in the state, Shelby Satterfield tied for 23rd.

“Shelby played good, she did a good job navigating the course,” Rainey said. “Caroline hit the ball very good all well, hit a bunch of fairways and greens. They all got better and better as the year went on and finished with great weeks.”

North Murray was also represented at the boys tournament by freshman Gage Winkler. After shooting a 78 on Monday, Winkler came back with a 73 on Tuesday to put him in a tie for 10th.

“Gage Winkler played really good today,” Rainey said. “He didn’t play bad yesterday, just yesterday his putting was off just a little. He two-putted a whole bunch, some of those putts he was missing yesterday were falling for him today. He struck the ball ball gorgeously.”