Perrysburg’s Sydney Deal watches her tee shot on the 12th hole at Stone Ridge Golf Club Tuesday morning.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
There are many golfers who can only dream about reaching a par five in two shots and finishing it off with an eagle.
For Perrysburg junior Sydney Deal, it is a regular occurrence.
Deal’s eagle on the par 5, No. 12 at Bowling Green’s Stone Ridge Club helped her to a five-under par 67 and medalist honors at the Division I girls district golf tournament Tuesday.
“I just hit a really good drive and then I hit my second shot to about four feet on the green,” Deal said.
Up next for Deal is the state tournament at the Ohio State University Gray Course on Oct. 21-22.
Deal, who qualifies as an individual, says it may not be so easy to reach par fives in two on the historic Ohio State course in Columbus.
“I probably need to work on my long game because it’s a lot longer course,” Deal said. “Then, the short game is always good to work on, too.”
At Stone Ridge, Deal’s round of 33-34—67 was 15 strokes better than the district runner-up, Toledo St. Ursula senior Payton Donnelly, who shot 39-43—82.
“She showed great command today,” Perrysburg coach Rick Rettig said. “She really dialed in her game.
“She was getting a little loose during the latter end of the season, so she had a swing lesson with Dan Connelly and really straightened some things out,” Rettig continued.
“She was just doing her normal Sydney Deal things, which were going long off the tee, and then her short game — she did a great job putting today.”
The temperatures on Tuesday reached the upper 70s, but the golfers had to battle winds averaging about 15 miles per hour.
“The wind was pretty strong, but with her ball flight, she just knows to handle these conditions and she did really well today,” Rettig said.
“Sixty-seven is an outstanding round any day, but on a day when the wind is up like this, that makes it even more special.”
Deal said it helped that she had the first tee time of the morning, so on her early holes the wind was more subdued, kicking up later in the day.
As a team, Perrysburg shot 360, nine strokes out of the running to qualify for state. St. Ursula won the team championship by shooting a 339 and Lexington (351) will advance as runner-up.
“We’ve got some good performances but just could not get that fourth scorer today. That made it a little bit tough,” Rettig said.
Other Perrysburg golfers were junior Ariyah Ellis (44-47—91), junior Olivia Eisaman (49-47—96), junior Paige Feldkamp (54-52—106) and junior Mia Moffitt (60-62—122).
Ashland and Perrysburg both shot 360 with their top four, followed by Toledo Notre Dame (365), Findlay (372), Anthony Wayne (386), Clay (401), Ontario (422) and Celina (431).
Bowling Green junior Lily Pollick also qualified for district as an individual, shooting 50-58—108.
