Two incoming seniors, one each from Lakeside High and Arkansas-Little Rock, share the lead after 18 holes of a state golf tournament at Hot Springs Country Club.
Gracen Blount and Peyton Weaver shot 78s on the Arlington course Wednesday in the Arkansas Women's Amateur. Weaver, of Benton, is two-time defending champion in the former Arkansas State Golf Association Women's Stroke, which continues through Friday.
Nora Phillips, of Hot Springs, and Little Rock's Taylor Reed are tied at 79, two strokes ahead of Maumelle's Taylor Loeb. Dover's Julie Oxendine and Fayetteville's Sarah Wright each shot 82, while Sherwood's Felisha Lee (89) completed the championship flight.
Marianna's Paula Curtis leads the senior division at 76, two ahead of HSCC members Carrie Hall and Pat Elliott. Hall, of Bismarck, was ASGA senior women's player of the year in 2016, winning her division of the ASGA Senior Match Play.
Reed, Loeb and Wright play college golf at Henderson State, Wright coming off a productive junior season after winning the 2016 ASGA women's match-play title.
An all-state player last year, Blount hopes to perform well enough this week and in her senior year at Lakeside to draw college interest.
"She's got a sweet little swing," said Lakeside golf coach Gary Don Smith. "She just needs to shoot a few more low scores to get her confidence up. She can play a little college golf, which is her dream now."
Smith said Blount's confidence rose through extensive practice at HSCC, where she and some Lady Ram teammates often spent seventh period in a supervised setting, either playing or (in case of bad weather) lifting weights.
"You shoot a few low scores and learn that you can do it," Smith said, "and even if you don't do it again for a week or two, you know it can finally come back to you."
Weaver won the women's amateur last year by four strokes over Wright with a 54-hole score of 227. She defeated Oxendine, an ASGA Hall of Famer, by five strokes in 2015 with a 221.
Sports on 06/08/2017