Mallory Sullivan, a sophomore at DCHS, earned second place in the State Class A-AA Golf Tournament at Willowbrook in Manchester Wednesday
Sullivan shot an 80 on Tuesday, just four shots off the lead, and a 73 on Wednesday for a score of 153, six shots behind the state champion Marlee Ingham of Creekwood who shot a 147 in the tournament.
Callie Mitchell, a senior at DCHS, shot a 98 on Tuesday and 96 on Wednesday for a score of 194 in the tournament.
In the boys competition, Ethan Roller, a sophomore at DCHS shot an 85 on Tuesday and 76 on Wednesday for a score of 161. The state champion is Dowling Armstrong of David Lipscomb who shot a 138 in the tournament.
Sullivan, who also competed in the state tournament last year, said she was pleased with her overall performance. “The first day I was striking the ball really good. I just wasn’t there with my short game. After the round I went and practiced my putting and my chipping. The second day my short game was a whole lot better. I didn’t hit the ball as good but everything turned out better. The competition this year was really hard. Players like Sara Dolmovich (Signal Mountain) and Sophia Shubert (Christian Academy of Knoxville) are really good players and to beat them gives me a lot of confidence,” she said.
Sullivan said she is also proud of her fellow athletes from DCHS who competed in the state golf tournament, Callie Mitchell and Ethan Roller. “Its Callie’s senior year and she made it to the state this year. I was really proud of her. Ethan has also done great all year. He just had one bad day. If he hadn’t had that bad day, I’m sure he could have won,” she said.
Mallory is also grateful for the community support “I would like to thank everyone who has supported the golf teams this year and to everyone who came out and watched me play today. I also want to thank Joe Pat Cope for being a wonderful coach this year and to my family for supporting me,” said Sullivan.
Coach Cope said Mallory played with a lot of maturity in the tournament. “Mallory was so mature today. This is her second year at the state but she is only a sophomore. We’ve got a fifteen year old sophomore out there but she shot today like a seasoned pro. I was just tickled to death at the way she played,” he said.
“It was Callie’s senior year. She ended up in the top half. She had a couple of big numbers, made an eight and a nine which kind of hurt her but Callie has worked on her game and has come around so much. We hate to lose Callie, her being a senior. But I just want to commend her so much because in the off season she really dedicated herself and worked on her game and it paid off. It was Callie’s first appearance in the state tournament and she had a great finish down there. It just goes to show what a good work ethic will do for you,” he said.
“As for Ethan (Roller), he got off to a little rough start. His first nine, he had a couple of bad breaks. A couple of balls went out of bounds. They didn’t fly and took a couple of bad hops and ended up out of bounds on him. It was his first year there (state tournament) and he may have had some jitters. But after that he came back and shot four over for his next twenty seven holes which would have gotten him a top five. I know its no consolation but Ethan has the type of mentality and attitude that when he went down there he expected to win and had the game to do so. He just got off to a little rough start,” said Coach Cope.
You can view the golf scores online at www.tssaa.org.
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