Natalie Foster’s family no longer belongs to Lookout Mountain Golf Club, although they still live nearby, but familiarity with her old home course paid off in a Reeder Cup victory Tuesday.
Foster shot an 81 and won the women’s individual championship with a 36-hole 168, 28 strokes above par but eight better than runner-up Kelsey McEntyre of Young Harris Community College. Foster also had Monday’s best women’s score, but she took six shots off it Tuesday.
“I was swinging better than yesterday,” said the Tennessee Wesleyan sophomore from Boyd-Buchanan, who last played at Lookout Mountain in finishing fourth in the 2009 Reeder Cup. “My putting still needs a little work. My swing was the better part of my game today.”
Her team finished second to NCAA Division II member West Georgia, which totaled 745 to the Lady Bulldogs’ 773, nine strokes clear of third-place Piedmont in the seven-team field. NAIA member Wesleyan was the Reeder Cup women’s winner last year with a 711 but lost two key players from that squad and has another one injured now.
TWC coach Stan Harrison didn’t mind losing to a higher-level program but was “embarrassed” by the score, he said.
“This by far the toughest course we play all year,” he said.
Covenant coach Tom Schreiner, the tournament director, said it “is really tough for women, especially when the wind is blowing like it is today. It has so many deep bunker shots.
“Natalie knows where not to hit it here.”
Schreiner holds the course record with a 63 and shot a 64 at Lookout this past winter “in really difficult conditions,” but he said he “would’ve had a hard time breaking 75 today.”
Covenant’s Jordan Agate, playing as an individual, was seventh with a 187. TWC’s Katelyn Weiner from Dunlap tied for 10th at 192, and teammate Britany Rader was 15th at 198.
“It was very difficult out there,” Schreiner said.
Only seven men’s players had better scores Tuesday than Foster, and four of those were from team champion Huntingdon College — like West Georgia a tournament newcomer relegating the 2009 champion to second place. Ranked third in NCAA Division III, the Montgomery, Ala., team shot 602 and beat runner-up LaGrange, also in the top 20, by 39 strokes.
Huntingdon teammates Jay Unis and Mack Duke finished first and second at 150 and 151 with 77s Tuesday, and LaGrange’s Bo Tiller and Young Harris’s Evan Jordan tied for third at 152. After Huntingdon’s Cody Causey at 153, Dalton resident Hudson Keener tied LaGrange teammate Adam Garrett for sixth at 155. Hunter Keener was 13th at 165, just ahead of Covenant’s Trevor Potts at 167 and Dave Wilkinson at 171.