By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MONROE — Stonebridge Golf Club likes to be known as “the friendliest course around,” but it’s a championship venue for a reason, with enough traps, trees and ponds to fluster high school girls.
South Piedmont Conference and Rowan County Champion East Rowan managed to accomplish its biggest goal of the season at Stonebridge on Tuesday, placing third in the 5A West Regional.
East qualified to make a return visit to the course next week for the two-day 5A State Championships.
“Gorgeous day, cool early (East’s first golfer was on the tee at 9 a.m.), and then warmed up some,” East coach Tinsley Merrell said. “A little windy, but the pace of play was great. What we talked about was going out there and playing bogey golf. Bogeys would be good today. We knew scores probably would be higher than usual on this course. All the girls experienced some tough holes, but they did a good job of staying focused and pushing through.”
East didn’t light it up, shooting 276 and finishing 29 strokes back of regional champ East Lincoln, but the Mustangs did enough. The top three teams make the state field and East built a six-shot cushion between its score and fourth-place West Henderson, which carded a 282. South Point placed second at 251.
East didn’t get to 276 in a standard way, as Kaley “KP” Pfister, the SPC Golfer of the Year and Rowan champion who usually leads the team, shot 45-49 — 94 and provided the third counting score. Pfister doesn’t make many triple bogeys, but she had back-to-back triples on 13 and 14. She finished 20th.
“KP struggled some, but she kept digging,” Merrell said. “She stayed in it.”
You have teammates for a reason, and Pfister’s teammates came through and picked her up. Jaelyn Earnhardt has had some off rounds late in the season, but she picked a perfect day to shine. She shot 90.
“Jaelyn was smooth,” Merrell said. “She put her driver in the bag and used her 7-wood as her fairway finder. The timing for her to play great couldn’t have been any better. She led us today.”
Earnhardt took a double bogey on the first hole, but settled in quickly. She parred 7, 8 and 9, shooting 43 on the front. Her 47 on the back included two triples, but it also included two more pars. She placed 11th individually.
Cailey Ludwig shot 45-47 — 92 for East’s second score. She had a really good day. She only had one triple bogey and made three pars. She was 14th.
“A very steady day for Cailey with only one max (triple bogey) on the par-5 16th,” Merrell said.
Izzy Stepp, who finished 24th, shot 49-48 — 97 with two pars. While Stepp’s score didn’t count toward the team total on Tuesday, there’s about a 50/50 chance her score will matter next week. Merrell was pleased with her round.
“She kept her cool and was dialed in,” Merrell said. “Proud of Izzy and so happy she’ll get to go to states for the first time.”
East’s fifth player, freshman Ashleyn Pfister, K.P.’s sister, shot 55-54 — 109, although it was an exciting 109. She had East’s only birdie of the day on the par-4 13th hole and also made two pars. She was 46th.
While it wasn’t smooth, the bottom line at the end of the day was that the Mustangs checked another goal off the list. They’re still playing — all of them. And they’ll be on the course together on the last day of the season.
“We were able to pull it out,” Merrell said. “Really proud of all of them.”
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Merrell was pleased to report that two of the SPC’s top players — Robinson’s Ava Mason and Northwest Cabarrus’ Carson Verburg — made the state field by being among the top nine individuals who were not on the three qualifying teams.
