It\u2019s all starting to come together for Lauren Sewell.<\/p>\n
The Kentridge High senior-to-be has been one of the state\u2019s elite golfers for the last few years, but this summer, Sewell clearly is hitting her stride.<\/p>\n
Despite blistering conditions that included a record-high heat wave, Sewell continued to burn up the Washington Junior Golf Association (WJGA) circuit during the final week of July. In the midst of the hottest stretch of days the Northwest has seen in years, Sewell handily walked away with the WJGA state title on Aug. 1 at the Glendale Country Club in Bellevue, carding a three-day total of 219, four strokes ahead of Kirkland\u2019s Simone Strauss.<\/p>\n
The title, her second WJGA state crown, was another indicator of how well Sewell has played the last several months. In May, Sewell took fourth at the high school state tournament. In July, she qualified for the USGA national tournament in New Jersey and this week will try and continue her torrid pace during an American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tournament in Wenatchee.<\/p>\n
No doubt, Sewell\u2019s game is better than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just been trying to keep everything steady, work on everything and fine tune things. I want to feel confident in all areas of my game,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now, I might have struck the ball better at other times, but I think my mental game is at its peak. I am staying in my zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
That zone during the state tournament included being in the lead from wire-to-wire, and doing so despite a rather uncomfortable heat wave.<\/p>\n
On the tournament\u2019s first day \u2013 Wednesday, July 29 \u2013 temperatures soared just above triple digits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of hard that first day because it was 103 degrees,\u201d said Sewell, who recently made a verbal commitment to play golf at Oregon State University after her days at Kentridge are through. \u201cThat was tough to finish out. I just tried to drink water and not focus on the heat. The heat wasn\u2019t so bad when I was walking down the fairway, but when I was on the green and the sun was beating down, it was tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot more tiring than other tournaments because of the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golfers shot 18 holes each day during the three-day tournament, which was split between the Glendale Country Club and Overlake Golf and Country Club. Sewell carded a one-under-par 72 on both the first and second days and went into the finale leading Strauss by two strokes. Despite carding a 75 on the final day, Sewell was able to keep Strauss at bay for the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was my last chance (to win state) and it definitely was a big goal,\u201d Sewell said. \u201cI just wanted to finish well, so wining was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 ALSO: Kent\u2019s Catherina Li carded a three-day total of 225 to take second place in the 12 and 13-year-old age group. \u2026 Kent\u2019s Kent Hagen, a senior-to-be at Kentwood High, took second in the 16 and 17-year-old age group, pocketing a three-day total of 217, just two strokes behind winner Michael Rutledge of Fall City. Kentridge\u2019s Sean McMullen wasn\u2019t far behind Hagen, taking sixth with a 220 while Kentwood\u2019s Thomas Zavada tied for ninth with a 225.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s all starting to come together for Lauren Sewell. The Kentridge High senior-to-be has been one of the state\u2019s elite golfers for the last few years, but this summer, Sewell clearly is hitting her stride. Despite blistering conditions that included a record-high heat wave, Sewell continued to burn up the Washington Junior Golf Association (WJGA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11775"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}