PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA | Morgan Sahm saved her best for last at the 2015 Optimist International Junior Golf Championships, but it just wasn’t quite enough to keep it going.
The Grandview High School senior-to-be continued her upward trend Friday in her third round of the tournament at the PGA National Resort & Spa, as she shot a 2-over-par 74 to improve by four strokes for the second straight day.
In her second career trip to the Optimist International tournament, Sahm’s final performance gave her a three-day total of plus-18 234, which put her in a three-way tie for 38th place in the field of qualifiers from 30 states and 14 foreign countries. However it left her a single stroke short of qualifying for the final round of play in the girls 15-18 tournament.
Playing the Fazio Course for a second straight day, Sahm birdied the par-4 Hole No. 9 — her only birdie of the tournament — to make the turn at plus-1. She made bogey on the par-4 Hole No. 10 for a second straight day, but played even over the last eight holes to finish with her 74.
A week earlier, Sahm played in the U.S. Girls Junior in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
None of the eight players from Colorado in the field managed to make the cut at the Optimist, with Sahm finishing the closest and leading the next-closest finisher from the state — Cassie Kneen — by eight strokes.
A pair of teammates on the Regis Jesuit team that won the Class 5A state championship — Colorado Christian University-bound Sydney Gillespie and junior-to-be Jaclyn Murray — had different tournaments, but finished with identical final three-round scores of plus-29 245.
Gillespie’s turned in a second round of 75, the second-best round for any Colorado player behind Sahm’s 74, but she also had an opening round of 88 and closed with an 82.
Her 75 came on the Fazio Course, on which Gillespie birdied Holes No. 1 and No. 4, which she’d played to a bogey the previous day, to finish even on the front nine. Three bogeys on the back nine brought Gillespie in with a 75.
Murray’s best round of the three turned out to be her first, an 80, as she also carded an 84 and 81. Her final round proved the most interesting, as she played the front nine of the Fazio Course at plus 6, despite two birdies.
A triple-bogey on par-4 No. 8 hurt her momentum, however.
Notes: Colorado’s contingent of eight players in the girls 15-18 portion of the Optimist International Junior Golf Championships tied with California for the third-most in the field, trailing only Ohio (11) and host Florida (10). Colorado’s contingent also did not include Regis Jesuit senior-to-be Mary Weinstein, who qualified for the tournament, but was unable to play as she was competing with Team Colorado in the Girls’ Junior America’s Cup…Besides 30 states, the tournament included qualifiers from Argentina, Bermuda, Bolivia, Canada (Quebec and Manitoba provinces), Colombia, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
GIRLS 15-18 OPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL JR. GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
Colorado scores (cut 233): T38. MORGAN SAHM (CENTENNIAL) 82-78-74 — 234; T60. Cassie Kneen (Parker) 78-82-82 — 242; T69. Delaney Elliott (Superior) 80-79-85 — 244; T73. SYDNEY GILLESPIE (HIGHLANDS RANCH) 88-75-82 — 245; T73. JACLYN MURRAY (GRAND JUNCTION) 80-84-81 — 245; T73. Adara Pauluhn (Niwot) 82-79-84 — 245; T82. Kylee Sullivan (Colorado Springs) 79-84-83 — 246; T101. Kiselya Plewe (Cortez) 96-79-79 — 254