Hollis individual champ, Signal girls win sixth state title in prep golf

MANCHESTER, Tenn. - There's an old saying that goes, "You can't win a golf tournament on the first day, but you sure can lose it."

Well, Signal Mountain's Lindsey Hollis may beg to differ.

Hollis did so well the first day of the TSSAA Small Class girls' tournament that not even Wednesday's birdie-less, eight-bogey second round at WillowBrook Golf Club could prevent the junior from winning the individual title by three strokes.

And with senior teammate Taylor Gardner finishing second, the Lady Eagles easily outdistanced Northview Academy for the team championship - Signal Mountain's sixth in the girls' program's history.

The Eagles made vast improvement from the first day to the next but could only manage to move from third to second in the boys' tournament, which Alcoa won with a 599. Alcoa also had the medalist in junior Gabriel Hunter, who backed his first day 3-under 69 with a 65.

Hollis played the course in 4 under on Tuesday. She led Gardner by six shots and everyone else by at least nine.

Hollis was 4 over through 12 holes in her second round before bogeying four of the next five on the way in. Still, she avoided anything worse than bogey on the day.

"Today I just kind of went for it," Hollis said. "Some shots just didn't go where I planned for them to go. I don't normally play conservative."

Her two-day 150 could've been combined with sophomore teammate Ashley Portera's dropped scores each day (she tied for 19th) and the Lady Eagles still would've been the champions by a shot. But with Gardner backing her first-day 76 with a 77, their victory ended up being by 37 strokes.

"I'm really proud of them," Signal Mountain coach Rodney Mitchell said. "They've just done an excellent job of preparing. They've stayed focused the whole year."

One motivating factor was that although Hollis and Gardner were participants in last year's Class A/AA tournament, they only qualified as individuals.

"We wanted to come here as a team, play our best and hopefully come away with a win," Gardner said. "It's my senior year and that was my goal."

Said Hollis: "I'm proud of my teammate. This is her last year and she did so well. She's really an advantage to the team. She's just a great captain. We're all going to miss her. She's passed down a lot of knowledge. Hopefully we can come back next year."

The same four Signal Mountain boys whose scores counted Tuesday also counted Wednesday. But each was lower on the second day, with all finishing in the top 22 individually.

Ben Seay dropped his score the most (nine shots), and his 157 left him tied for 13th overall. Benjamin Burns paced the Eagles at 153 and finished 10th. The other contributors were Wesley Portera (158) and Foster Wood (163).

"They all played a lot better," Mitchell said. "They're all freshmen and sophomores, and it was their first time here. They might've needed a day to get their feet underneath them."

The highest-finishing boy from the Chattanooga area was McMinn Central junior John Houk (143), who played as an individual and ended up third.

Playing as individuals in the girls' tournament, Sale Creek's Ashley Holland and her sister Hannah (169), a junior, notched top-10 finishes. Ashley, a freshman, wound up sixth at 164.

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.