Frame, Thomas earn titles
Hank Frame had two chances to make a putt and win the District 8 4A golf championship Thursday at MeadowWood Golf Course.
Chessey Thomas didn’t have to deal with the pressure – or the extra hole.
But they ended up with the same thing, the individual titles and top seeds in the State 4A tournament in two weeks. The boys will play at Kennewick’s Canyon Lakes Golf Course while the girls will compete at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
Lewis and Clark’s Thomas led a group of four Tigers girls who qualified for state by shooting a 1-over 73 in Thursday’s blustery conditions. The junior’s two-day total of 145 – district play opened last Tuesday at Wandermere Golf Course – was seven shots better than teammate Megan Haase.
Another LC freshman, Sydney Kersten, finished fourth at 161 and senior Emily Travis’ 162 was good for the fifth of the district’s six state berths. U-Hi’s Kaitlen Parsons finished third (156) and Elaine Whaley of Gonzaga Prep grabbed the sixth spot (168).
“The unique thing about high school and especially LC, it is very much team-oriented,” said Thomas, who attends St. George’s but, because the Dragons don’t offer golf, can play for LC. “I think, with four of us going and the chemistry we have out there, that’s something not many schools possess.”
Thomas’ 1-over was built the old-fashioned way, one fairway and green at a time. She had tap-in pars on MeadowWood’s tough three finishing holes, the 531-yard par-5 16th, the 115-yard uphill par-3 17th and the downhill, 364-yard par-4 18th.
“I hit a lot of greens and hit a lot of fairways, but my putting wasn’t real great,” Thomas said.
It was something with which U-Hi’s Frame could empathize.
The senior, who couldn’t convert a 10-footer on the 18th hole, buried a 15-foot, right-to-left breaking birdie effort on the first extra hole to edge Megan Haase’s older brother, Justin. Both boys shot 140 over the two days, with Haase posting Thursday’s best round, a 2-under 70.
“I hit every putt right where I wanted to,” Frame said of his day. “I thought every putt looked so good and it would just burn the edge every time.”
Still, it was a putt that got Frame going. After a hailstorm stopped play for some 5 minutes with the boys leaders preparing to putt on the par-3 eighth hole, Frame stepped up and sank a downhill 20-footer for birdie. That got Frame back to even on the day – he, Haase and LC’s Christian Alfaro all bogeyed the into-the-wind par-4 fifth – and seemed to right what to then had been a wind-blown ship.
“I missed a short one (for par on 5) and that really killed me,” Frame said. “It was frustrating, (but) it was pretty much like redemption when I sunk that long one and that kind of got it going a little bit.”
But it was Haase who played the steadiest golf. The junior, who shot an opening-day 70, a stroke behind Frame and two behind teammate Alfaro, credited his back-nine 35 to a tactical decision.
“I hit three drivers on the back side,” he said. “I think that’s why I was 1 under. I kept it in the fairway.”
Alfaro, who eagled the par-5 seventh, sticking a 9-iron from 140 yards to within 8 feet, took himself out of contention with a 4-over, three-hole stretch early on the backside.
His two-day total of 143 put him in a three-way tie for third with Ferris junior Garrett Howard, who earned the third seed with a birdie on the second extra hole, and Mead senior Matt Penny, who strung together three long birdie putts to shoot an even-par 72.
G-Prep senior Rob Seibly hung on to earn the final spot with a 75 and a 146.