Butler's DeCola must settle for 4th
PENN TWP — Marissa DeCola smiled, shrugged her shoulders and tried to explain the mixed feelings she carried with her like a golf bag Wednesday morning.
"I wasn't striking the ball as well as I was (Tuesday)," said DeCola, who shot an 81 in the final round of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls Golf Championship at Butler Country Club to finish fourth, six strokes behind the winner, Emily Gimpel.
"I missed more greens, definitely," DeCola added. "I struggled early. I just tried to push through."
DeCola did, overcoming a slow start and finishing strong — just not strong enough to catch a field of former WPIAL and PIAA champions.
Despite not being able to make a charge up the leaderboard, DeCola, who will be a Butler High junior in the fall, couldn't quibble with her tournament.
She fired an 81 in the opening round and followed that with a course-best 77 on Tuesday. If not for a missed putt here and an errant drive there, DeCola would have been in better position to become a serious threat to Gimpel, who led throughout the three-round event.
"These are good scores for me," DeCola said. "I'll definitely go into my next tournament with more confidence."
Gimpel, who traveled more than 300 miles from the Philadelphia suburbs for the tournament, shot a 79 in the final round to clinch the title.
She was the only golfer in the field of 23 to shoot scores under 80 in all three rounds.
"This course is pretty tricky," said Gimpel. "You really have to hit fairways to be able to score. So, you have to have a solid swing, a solid short game, solid putting — pretty much solid everything."
Gimpel had that. Her approach is surprisingly simple: Don't mess up.
"I just focused on not getting many big numbers," Gimpel said. "I knew if I played steady, I'd be in contention."
Alessandra Liu, the defending PIAA champion, shot a 76 in the final round to jump to second place, four strokes behind Gimpel.
The 76 was the lowest score in the three-day event.
Defending WPIAL champion Nadia Luttner of Fox Chapel finished third, losing a scorecard tiebreaker to Liu.
After Gimpel and Liu, who are from the Philadelphia area, the next four placers, Luttner, DeCola, Ann Colligan of Kittanning and Kendall Allen of Pittsburgh, finished in the same order at the WPIAL finals.
Notes: Alexa Glew, a Gibsonia native, had a much better third round, shooting a 93. ... Julia Curley defended her Pennsylvania Junior Junior Girls Golf Championship by firing a 49 in the third and final round Wednesday. She finished with a three-round total of 141, 46 strokes better than her closest competitor.
