Hartselle High School, Sports
Twice as nice: Hartselle repeats as state golf champs
Hartselle golfers Beth Ann Compton, Kaylon King, Mary Roberts, Arin Eddy and Heather Nail pose for pictures with the state championship trophy Tuesday at Hampton Cove.
With a young team featuring just two sophomores, Hartselle wrapped up the title by beating Piedmont by 18 strokes. Glencoe was third, followed by Alexandria, Bayside and Faith.
This team might be young, but it also has a pair of state championships on its resume.
“Not many people are state champions and we have two,” said Hartselle’s Kaylon King.
With every player returning from last year’s team that won the state 1A-5A title, Hartselle was facing high expectations for a second championship. The players tried to avoid any talk of an easy repeat, though.
“We didn’t really ever hear anybody say we were going to win, but we knew they were because we had everyone back this year,” Nail said. “We just came out here and played like it was just another tournament. We held it together pretty well.”
Arin Eddy shot a 2-over 74 on the final round – just a day after battling rain and wet conditions to shoot an 87 – to help the Lady Tigers seal the second-straight championship. She finished the tournament with a two-day score of 161.
“I didn’t have a good day Monday,” Eddy said. “I was nervous and I was expecting too much of myself. Today, I just forgot about everything and played shot-by-shot.”
Eddy shook off the nerves and battled a course that had drastically changed with the weather over a span of just 24 hours. After a day of rain, the sun brought out high temperatures that changed the players’ strategies for the final 18 holes.
Eddy was just glad to get out of the rain.
“It was much warmer today and the greens were much faster,” Eddy said. “I think I just played better because it was so wet yesterday.”
Eddy opened the second round with a bogey on the first hole but followed that up with a birdie on the 330-yard second hole.
In the final round, Eddy had 14 pars, including a stretch of seven straight on the front side to finish nine strokes better than a day earlier.
Eddy had two bogeys on the backside and finished with pars on the other seven holes.
King, the opening day leader after shooting a 77 in the rain on the first day, finished with a difficult round of 89 to score a 166 in the 36-hole tournament.
“I guess I just don’t play well in sunshine,” King said jokingly after the final round. “Monday I was in the zone and I felt it. I had a bad second round and Arin and Heather pulled me up and told me it would be alright.
“It wasn’t a good day.”
But King’s day – along solid rounds by Eddy, Nail and Compton – was more than enough to win the school’s second-straight golf championship.
Piedmont kept pressure on the Lady Tigers on the second day but could not cut into Hartselle’s dominating lead.
Now the Lady Tigers have already set their sights on a three-peat next spring.
“We’re going to do it again next year. And the year after that,” said Compton, who was making her first appearance in the state tournament.
Heather Nail had two identical rounds of 83 and also finished at 166, while Beth Ann Compton went 104-95 to wrap up the event with a 199 score.
Nail finished strong with putts for birdie and par on the last two holes of the tournament.
“This was exciting even though I didn’t play too well,” Compton said. “Part of it was not being focused and some of it was nerves, too.”
But the Hartselle players seemed to draw confidence from each other – when one was struggling, the others picked up the slack – much like they had done all season long.
“I just thought this has been a great year for these girls,” said Hartselle head coach Gary Orr. “They’ve had ups and downs and each one of them has picked each other up at different times.
“This time it was Arin who had a great second day and Kaylon had a great first day. Heather stayed constant the whole time and Beth Ann cut 10 strokes off her first-round score. It’s a great team of five young ladies. They really support each other.”
