Aberdeen's Erica Honadel, North East's Noah Wallace, win District 7 golf titles
Sep. 22—Aberdeen senior Erica Honadel and North East junior Noah Wallace won District 7 golf titles Tuesday at Geneva Farm Golf Course in Street.
Conditions were windy at times with firm greens. Shots off fairways gave players trouble throughout the day.
Despite the conditions, Wallace shot the day's low round, a 1-under-par 71, to repeat the boys title he won at Mountain Branch Golf Course last year.
Honadel shot 80 to lead the girls after finishing as a runner-up in both her freshman and junior seasons. Joining Honadel in advancing to the girls state tournament is Aurora Walters, last year's district champion. Walters shot 91, four below the required score of 95.
A handful of others also shot scores low enough to qualify for next month's Maryland State Golf Tournament in College Park. C. Milton Wright's Jack Geyer shot 73, the second-best score overall, while his teammates Joe LoBianco (75) and Trevor Heid (77) also scored well. Chase Medinger added an 84, not low enough to qualify individually, but the foursome totaled 309 to qualify as a team in the Class 2A/1A field.
Fallston qualified two players with Alex Langford shooting 76 and Logan Bark carding an 80. Male players were required to shoot 81 or better to advance to state.
"When we started it was really windy and I was having a really hard time controlling my driver in the first place and that just made it worse," Honadel said. "The greens were definitely firm, more than I remember Geneva being."
Honadel battled the issues for most of the round and finally started to see better results over her final four holes. "Putting was hard, I had five three-putts today," she said. Putts from 5-to-6 feet were rimming out, but Honadel buckled down to finish strong.
"The last four holes I finally started giving myself birdie putts," Honadel said. "[Hole No. 6] was a 5-foot putt that I missed, seven I was one revolution short, eight was the par-5, I hit it in two to about 4-to-5 feet and I actually made the putt, so I eagled eight."
For Wallace, a good start allowed him to claim the second title.
"I started well, I started 3-under through four," Wallace said. "I was hitting some good putts, I was driving it well, I was swinging good, swinging well the whole day really. The last five holes on back nine I started to pull some putts and stuff wasn't falling."
Wallace is now qualified to defend the 2A/1A state title he won a year ago.
"I've been swinging good, playing good, it gives me a lot of confidence to go into states," Wallace said. "I'Il go down there, play some practice rounds and stuff, get familiar with that course again."
Geyer, just a sophomore, was solid.
"I thought I did pretty solid ... it was definitely a struggle," Geyer said. "You have to know there's holes you're going to get bogeys on and know the fact that you're going to get some other birdies, too. So you just find scoreable holes and you have to take advantage of those. Play to the smarter shots and not harder shots."
Bel Air qualified as a 4A/3A team with a 354 total. Players are Cade Zengel, 88; Matt Young, 88; Andrew McKay, 89; and Ben Bowen, 89.
The only other player that qualified is Rising Sun's Tyler Hogue, who shot 80.
