By Ben Reese
FLEETWOOD -- Youth will be served.
Elizabeth Beek, the youngest of the Suburban One League's representatives at the Eastern Regional golf tournament at Golden Oaks Golf Club, was also the one who rose the highest. The Wissahickon freshman shot a 6-under-par 66 to run away with the AAA girls’ title and earn herself a spot at the PIAA Golf Championship.
It was Beek's best day of competitive golf. She finished six shots ahead of Sydney Yermish, who was the medalist at the District One tournament last week.
She is not the only SOL golfer to land a spot at Heritage Hills Golf Resort and Spa for states. Plymouth Whitemarsh's Dylan Gooneratne finished his round at 3-over 75, which was good enough to tie for 14th.
The AAA boys advanced 26 players and the AAA girls advanced 13 to states.
Missing the cut were Pennridge's Brendan Bauer (77), CB West's Milo Jezzeny (78), Christian Matt of Wissahickon (79), Jack Dunsmore of CB East (79) and CB West's Kevin Lydon (85). For the girls, Jade Gu of Pennsbury (80) finished in a four-way tie for the final two spots but lost in the playoffs and Sarah Scarpill of CB East was one stroke behind her (81).
When it was over, Beek couldn't stop smiling.
"That was the best round of my life," she said. "I'm extremely happy because everything worked well today.
"I just made everything. I had seven birdies and I bogeyed the last hole, which was fine because I think that is the hardest hole on the course. I just left myself in really good positions today. I'm going to states."
For Gooneratne, it was also a good day. While he didn't come out as medalist, he did advance.
"It was good – I played well," he said. "The last couple of holes I didn't do well. I went 2-over on the last three. I finished bogey-bogey. I hit a bad drive on 17 and a bad drive on 18."
However, that didn't dampen his enthusiasm for moving on.
"It's what I've been working toward all season,” Gooneratne said.
Likewise for Beek, it is a dream come true.
"I am so excited," she said with a wide grin. "This is my first year so I'm really excited.
"I'm just going to focus one shot at a time (at states). Do a practice round to see what is out there and just try to do what I did today."
A good philosophy, especially after shooting a 66.
The rest of the SOL representatives didn't fare as well. The closest to making the move to states was Gu. She tied with three other girls for one of the final spots, all shooting 8-over 80. But she couldn't finish things off.
"The tee shots were fine," she said. "Approach shots were really inconsistent.
"My worst thing was putting. I couldn't putt for my life. I had a four-putt, a few three-putts. All of my decent putts just didn't drop."
Bauer finished his round one shot away from a playoff. There were five golfers who finished at 76, one shot ahead of Bauer, and they played off for four spots at states.
"It went all right," Bauer said of his round. "I had some good shots; I had some bad shots.
"I played a lot better on the back nine. I just hit it more solid and made a lot better shots. The front nine, not so much."
Scarpill, a senior, also just missed getting into a playoff. Her 81 trailed making the playoff by one stroke.
"Today was awful," she said. "I wasn't hitting fairways and I had to get myself out of trouble and I just couldn't.
"I started out all right. I made a lot of clutch putts to save par. I had a 20-foot birdie putt on 5 and I just crumbled on the back. I don't know what happened. I'm a little disappointed."
Jezzeny, Matt, Dunsmore and Lydon all have another chance next year to make states. Jezzeny was disappointed because he wanted to match his brother Luca who made it to states in 2018.
"I'm a little disappointed," he said. "I missed probably five putts around 10 feet that all should have gone in."
But he does have the right outlook for next year.
"I've got a goal for next year," he said, "looking forward to it. I just needed to capitalize on a few more opportunities and I think I would have made it."
Lydon had the toughest day of the SOL golfers.
"I started out with a ball OB (out of bounds)," he explained. "It was a rough start from there.
"I got it together on my last three holes and that was it. It was not a good day today. I hit a lot of fairways but the putts were not good, the chips were not good. I'm happy (to have gotten to regionals) but I would have liked to go to states."
The PIAA individual championship will be held Monday, Oct. 21, and Tuesday, Oct. 22, at Heritage Hills in York, and the team competition will be Wednesday, Oct. 23. The SOL does not have any teams playing in the team tournament.
The start for the individual competition will be tee times, which will be listed on the PIAA website, www.piaa.org.
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