GOLF: Heather McDaniel sixth at IHSA golf state
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Pinckneyville sophomore Heather McDaniel returned home from Decatur with a sixth place finish in the 2010 IHSA Girls Class A State golf tournament on Saturday, closing out her second round with three straight pars to match her first round score of 83 at Red Tail Run Golf Course.
M cDaniel's two-day total of 166 (+22) tied her with Jessa Handwerk (Jr.) of Harrisburg for the best finish amongst southern Illinois representatives in the tournament, one shot better than Nashville freshman Shawn Rennegarbe (167).
"I'd been hearing about the other girls, how their days had been, whenever I went in after the first nine and I knew I had to par the last three holes to place," McDaniel said.
"It was a lot of pressure on me, but I do fairly well under pressure, so I kind of put that in the back of my mind and just focused on every shot."
Byron's Elizabeth Curtiss (Sr.) claimed the individual championship with a 75 (+3) on Saturday to total 156 (+12) and overtake round one leader Jessica Schultz (So., Somonauk), who fell into the sixth place tie with McDaniel and Handwerk.
Starting on the back nine on Friday, McDaniel parred holes No. 16 and 17 before her only birdie on the day at 18 closed out her opening nine holes with a score of 40. Her 43 on the front nine completed a round where she shot no worse than bogey on any hole, and placed her tenth after the first day of competition.
After a pair of bogeys and a birdie at No. 2 in her first three holes on Saturday, McDaniel ran into some trouble at No. 4, which played as the second most difficult hole in round two. Her ball ended up in the woods, just like two of the other three girls in her group, and she left the green with a triple bogey on the par four.
McDaniel put the setback behind her and posted a 42 on the front nine, but was still hovering at the tail end of the top ten when she was set to tee off at No. 16.
After shooting par on each of the last three holes, McDaniel had to wait around for others to finish before finding out she had tied for the sixth place medal.
"I wasn't looking at the scoreboard at all," McDaniel said. "I was just too nervous to look at it."
After PCHS coach Dennis Kania broke the news to her, McDaniel could finally reflect on what she had accomplished.
"I was astounded," she said. "I was thirty-fifth (at state) last year, and to be sixth this year is a big improvement."
McDaniel advanced to the state tournament with her individual performance at last Monday's Carlyle Sectional, where her Lady Panthers were eliminated as a team with a fifth place finish after claiming the school's first golf Regional title the week before.
Champaign (St. Thomas More) took home the team championship by a substantial 35-stroke margin, finishing with a total stroke count of 695 (+119) for the tournament.
Metropolis (Massac County) brought back second place at 730 (+154), followed by Nashville (734, +158) and Freeburg (753, +177).