LANCASTER, SC - The Chesnee girls' golf team had high expectations coming into this season after winning back-to-back 2A state championships the last two seasons and over the last two days at the Lancaster Country Club they proved to everyone that they were once again the best team in the state, winning their third straight 2A state championship.
The championship was won by the same group of girls that won it last year as Olivia Roberts, Addy Parker, Olivia Shields, Abigail Watson, and Abby Herrington all returned for another run at this year's state championship. Chesnee head coach Kyle Scruggs said the bond of the team along with the hard work they have put in year-round paid off to help them win it again. "We're very happy to be able to repeat as champions three times in a row," said Scruggs. "It's all about their hard work as this group really loves each other and work hard, they want to play golf together and for each other. It's all about team effort with them and they truly enjoying playing golf together as a team. I think that gets the best out of themselves as they push each other to be better every time they go on the course." The Eagles jumped out to a huge lead on Monday after shooting a score of 303 and were 46 shots ahead of second place Christ Church after day one. They backed up that impressive first day with another strong performance on Tuesday shooting a 313 for a two-day total of 616. Chesnee's performance was so impressive that they defeated the second-place team of Oceanside Collegiate (698) by 82 shots. While the team won the team state championship, Olivia Roberts also made it back-to-back individual state championships for herself as well with a two-day total score of 140 after shooting a round of 70 on both Monday and Tuesday. It marks the third year in a row a Roberts sister has won the individual state championship as Olivia Roberts' sister Sydney also won the individual 2A state championship in 2021. "It's a heart-warming feeling to win this one for the third straight time as a team because we have such a great bond as a team as well as great chemistry and it feels great to have won it again with this group," said Roberts. "It's cool to me to win the championship on the individual side as well because I've been working really hard this summer and I feel like my work has paid off this year. I was happy to have a big boost of confidence going into this year shooting some low scores starting the season and winning it again just feels really good." When asked if she was going to hold it over her older sister's head that she had won two individual state titles to her one now Roberts said with a laugh, "Absolutely, I'm going to constantly aggravate her about it." Scruggs said it has been special to him to have a Roberts kid on his team over the last few years, that will after next year be nine straight years, because he's known them since they were kids and he's happy to see their success over the years. "I've been friends with the Roberts family for years as I played golf with their dad Kevin for a while and I remember his daughters when they were little," said Scruggs. "I remember when Sydney came to play for me those two years at Boiling Springs before moving over here to Chesnee, she played for me for six years and now Olivia will have played three years of her own and I asked Olivia walking up the fairway today that did she realize I've had a Roberts kids play for me for nine straight years now. Our team is like family and it's good to see success for them because not only are they good players but they're also great kids." Roberts wasn't the only Chesnee player to have a good tournament as the Eagles had four players make the All-State team with their performances over the two days of play. Addy Parker finished in third place overall with a two-day score of 148 while Olivia Shields finished in seventh place with a two-day score of 162 and Abigail Watson finished in 10th place with a score of 166. "Our girls have always pushed themselves to play at a high level," said Scruggs. "They don't really focus on who we're playing against but instead competing against the golf course. Today their goal was to break 300 as a team, not to extend the lead or anything like that. They went out there with that goal in mind not to beat anyone in particular but that they were going out there to shoot the best round we've ever shot as a team. When they set goals like that, it's hard to beat them as a team because it shows they're not just content with leading, but they want to be the best team in the state." Scruggs said it was special to have built the program to what it has become, especially being from Chesnee and that it was special for all his assistant coaches as well as they were all from Chesnee too. "Every coach I have graduated from Chesnee in Aaron Jolley, Adam Jolley, and Drew Fisher." said Scruggs. "I think we take great pride in what we've accomplished because we're from Chesnee and it's our home and we're now getting the opportunity to coach there. I feel like you take great pride in a program when you've grown up there and you want to do the best you can for not only the kids but for the community as well. You just want to see the kids succeed though and get opportunities later on which is our goal as coaches, to give our kids the opportunity to play at the next level if that's what they want to do." While the Eagles will look to celebrate their third straight state championship over the next few weeks, they will soon be turning their focus to next season where they'll return all five starters from this year's team, which was part of the conversation on their way to eat food after winning the state championship. "We talked about in the car ride after we played today, that we have one more year with this group," said Scruggs. "They said it was so sad we only had one more year together, but I told them it could be worst, and we could be having three graduate this year. We're going to give it our best go next year and hopefully we can get four in a row and do something that they can always talk about in years to come." Comments are closed.
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