Garden City HS golf wins rain-delayed regional

GARDEN CITY — The Garden City High School girls golf team used Buffalo Dunes Golf Course as a true home-course advantage on Monday afternoon as they won the rain-delayed regional by 56 strokes at Buffalo Dunes Golf Course.

The golfers were forced to go into the clubhouse after teeing off due to the downpour of rain shortly after 11:30 a.m. That delay didn’t bother Buffalo junior, Alyssa McMillen.

McMillen led the way for the Buffaloes with an 11-over par 83 round to win the individual title by two strokes over Derby High School’s Emma Johnson.

“It started off really rough with the conditions and everything,” McMillen said. “As we continued and went on, it got better and the weather got better too, so that was good.”

Since the Buffaloes get to practice at Buffalo Dunes every day, they had no problem with the course and especially after the rain had saturated portions of the course.

“It’s a really huge advantage, McMillen said. “Cause we get to learn how to play out of the rough and what clubs to use and when to play and when not to.

McMillen’s teammate, Elena Lempke finished in third place individually with a 21-over par 93.

“Alyssa started off struggling and then she kind of just played steady the rest of the round,” Garden City coach Trent Specht said. “Elena struggled on the front nine and came back on the back nine and played really really solid for us.”

Dodge City finished second overall behind the Buffaloes to qualify for next Monday’s 6A state tournament in Salina. Breanna Galindo led the way for the Red Demons with a 28-over par 100 and ninth place finish individually.

Top 3 Team Scores

1st) Garden City, 387

2nd) Dodge City, 443

3rd) Derby, 454

Top 10 Individual Scores

1st) Alyssa McMillen (Garden City), 83

2nd) Emma Johnson (Derby), 85

3rd) Elena Lempke (Garden City), 93

4th) Reaghan Martin (Hutchinson), 99

5th) Breanna Galindo (Dodge City), 100

6th) Grace Yi (Garden City), 102

7th) Meredith Kinney (Hutchinson), 107