By Brian FeesSouthern Tier Sports Report
RUSH —After a pair of double bogeys in the first five holes things could have gone bad for Corning freshman Delaney Abel at the NYSPHSAA Girls’ Golf Championships at Wild Wood Country Club.
However, Abel was able to settle in and pared 14 of the 18 holes on the day on her way to a round of 78, leading her to a third-place finish in the state.
Abel finished with a 148 over the two rounds. Nina Choe of Ursuline won at six-under, 138 and Hayden Knapp of South Glens Falls was second at one-over 145.
Corning coach Chris Clark knows that with Choe getting off to a strong start Abel had to press a little to try and make up ground.
“She did a great job, she lost to a tremendous, tremendous athlete,” Clark said. “That girl is going to head to Yale in a couple years, she’s already committed. She got up on Delaney early a little bit. And, Delaney tried to press a little too much and do some things out of her comfort zone. But, you had to, because unfortunately you couldn’t show up and make pars here today and beat Nana, she’s a heck of a golfer.”
Abel was tied for the lead after day one when she shot a two-under 70.
“Definitely one of my better first rounds of the year,” Abel said. “Obviously to follow it up with a 78 is never a good thing, but I’m glad I never felt down on myself and now I just powered through to the end and it felt good.”
While Monday wasn’t an ideal round, Abel was happy to be able to keep battling and keep the round in the 70’s.
“That was super nice,” Abel said. “I just kept grinding and tried to get in the right head space and turn the page on every single hole and it paid off.
“I was really happy with that (finishing the round strong), especially not letting it get to myself. It feels good to progress to my bad rounds being in the high 70s.”
Abel has been working hard over the years and is happy to see how much she’s gotten better.
“It’s super important to me, because over the years I’ve seen growth in my self esteem and how I progressed as a player, so it’s nice too see those kind of things paying off in bigger events such as this,” Abel said.
That opening round 70 was magical for the Corning freshman.
“That was really awesome,” Clark said. “My hat is off to Delaney. She’s such a tremendous kid. She works hard and everything she’s kind of put in the last two or three years with both myself and some of the other coaches she works with throughout the year, it kind of came to fruition yesterday. The tee shots were great, the approach shots were great, the putting was great. It just kind of all clicked on the same day and for only being a ninth grader I think we are going to see that for the next three years.
That round gives Abel a lot of confidence of what she’s capable of doing.
“I had four birdies yesterday and I followed that up with pars and it kept going and going and I was like I might have a shot of doing something here,” Abel said.
The third-place finish is the best by a Hawks golfer, and the best by a Section IV golfer since Bailey Shoemaker of Unadilla Valley was a runner-up multiple times.
Top three in the state is something Abel would have been thrilled about going into the weekend.
“I would be probably ecstatic,” Abel said. “Because I came into this tournament wanting to be top 10 and to make it to the top three is something that should never fall short.”
Playing in the final group on Sunday was a lot of fun for Abel.
“I have know those girls since I was little, so it feels great to have that friend group in the last four to see how much we’ve grown,” Abel said. “You can take some stuff from them, you can study their game and put it into yours. It’s obviously easier to play with good people and play good yourself.”
The conditions were nice all weekend for the Hawks freshman.
“The conditions were pretty good, we played here a few weeks ago and it was absolutely rained out so it feels nice actually having some dry fairways for once,” Abel said.
While Abel had a third-place state finish, she still has things she wants to get even better at.
“I am definitely going to work on the projectile with my iron shots and wedges and my putting, but overall I was pretty happy with most of it,” Abel said. “Just had some bad breaks.”
After a third-place finish this year, and being tied for the lead after round one there is plenty of drive to one day win a championship.
“It is definitely in my mind, and I have a couple years left and I definitely think I have a shot of getting it done,” Abel said.
Clark believes that one day you’ll see Abel with the state champion title.
“I think it’s a great possibility for her,” Clark said. “She plays in some pretty big events in the summer time and last summer was kind of the first summer again things started clicking and she started finishing strong in some of these events and that carried into today. I think the next three years the safe money is probably she is going to win one of these in the next three years.”
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