Lady Mustangs finish 10th at golf tournament

Marble Falls tied for 10th with Pflugerville Hendrickson by shooting a 403 at the Round Rock Invitational at Star Ranch golf course Oct. 15.

Lady Mustang Soo Jin Han shot an 82 and tied for 16th as an individual.

Shea Thomas added a 102, while Brooke Grounds shot a 108, and Beth Ann Berkman finished at 125.

“It has to come in steps,” head coach Lonnie Tackitt said. “Unless you’ve been playing tournament golf, you have to gain that tournament experience. You can see it through tournament golf. You have to learn the process. You want the young players to have the open mind. I think they will make improvements.”

Randi Grounds and Rachel Doyle have been sidelined because of injury or illness, the coach said. 

“We can see we need our two seniors back,” he said. “We only had four players. We had to keep all four scores. All three rounds so far this year we’ve only had four.

“We’ve had some unusual circumstances,” he added. “One is having surgery and another broke her hand.”

Thomas’ score was good, the coach said. She is a junior.

Berkman, a freshman, and Grounds, a sophomore, are still learning to play on the varsity level.

Part of learning comes at different levels, Tackitt said. For instance, he noticed one of his players was in a fairway bunker but was trying to get out using the greenside bunker technique.

“She took five swipes at it before she got it out,” he said. “You think you have everything covered.”

Han, a junior, has been the team’s No. 1 golfer since she was a freshman. She was shooting in the 90s at the beginning.

“She got down to the 80s quickly,” the coach said. 

She qualified for the regional tournament in her first year and led the squad to the tournament as a team last season.

“Everyone saw her at the club all the time,” Tackitt said. “That’s what it takes.”

Fellow District 25-4A member Hutto shot a 360 to finish sixth. 

Hutto’s top two players, Ilissa Riley Jaggers and Amanda Hebert, shot a 79 and 82, respectively.

“That’s also their home course,” Tackitt said. “I knew Hutto had a good player. I didn’t know they had two.”

The boys team will compete in the Halloween in the Hills tournament Friday and Saturday at the Horseshoe Bay Resort. The tournament is hosted by Arlington High School and will feature teams from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Tackitt said.