HARRISBURG – Olivia Braun set a blistering pace and the rest of the team followed suit Thursday afternoon, as the Aberdeen Central girls’ golf team won its season-opening tournament by 17 strokes at the Harrisburg Invitational.
Braun birdied four of the first eight holes and eagled two of the last four – with birdies on the other two – to come in at 6-under 65. That, said Central coach Kim Zimmerman, set a new women’s course record.
“We kind of take Olivia for granted, I think, once in a while,” Zimmerman said. “We all know she’s capable of doing that.”
Zimmerman said he was definitely pleased with his team’s performance, especially since the Golden Eagles have only been outdoors since Monday.
“There’s a lot of positives that came out of today,” he said. “Besides the fact that (Braun) played as well as she did … our team played very well from top all the way down, one through six. Doesn’t happen very often where you get 1 through 6 playing good on the same day. We’ll enjoy those days when they do happen, like today.”
In addition to Braun’s medalist effort, Central put two others in the top 10. Kyley Wirebaugh finished in a three-way tie for fifth with a 6-over round of 77, and Emma Dohrer was one stroke back in a tie for eighth.
Chloe Vikander tied for 16th with a round of 84.
Central’s two non-scoring golfers, Genevieve Golz and Kylie Herman, finished within six strokes of being part of the Golden Eagles’ scoring contingent.
“Coaches like it when they’re all bunched up like that,” Zimmerman said.
As a team, the Golden Eagles finished with a total of 304 strokes, 17 ahead of runner-up O’Gorman and 18 ahead of third-place Mitchell.
It was a brilliant start to the season for the defending state champion Golden Eagles, picking up like the off-season never happened.
“Good to pick up kind of where we left off, 100 percent,” ZImmerman said. “But you could kind of see it, the back nine, the wind picked up a little bit, it got warmer, and you could kind of see it on their faces, they were wearing down a little bit. Couldn’t tell by the scores, but you could tell it physically. First time out, walking, the heat, the wind, I think it wore on them a little bit, but they kept it together and they finished strong.”
Central heads to Huron on Tuesday for another test of the early season. Zimmerman said he plans to take all eight varsity golfers to the event.
“Regardless of how many (teams) are down there, it’s a good opportunity for us to go play and to compete and see where some of the girls are that are vying for some spots on the varsity,” he said. “Not only that, the ones that are playing or have played are going back down there in a week or two for the invite, so it’s a very meaningful meet regardless of how many teams are there. We’re going to go and compete whether there’s three or five.”
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