WW South's Skurla brushes off 'rough' start, earns repeat
By looking at her final score, you never would have known just how badly Wheaton Warrenville South senior Sarah Skurla started her round Tuesday in the DuPage Valley Conference tournament at Pheasant Run.
Skurla shot a 4-over-par 76 to repeat as conference champion by 5 strokes. That was the same margin by which her Tigers defeated runner-up Naperville Central 335-340.
Skurla started with two double bogeys and a quadruple bogey, yet she rebounded to shoot a 40 on the front nine, then a 36 on the back nine.
"The first three holes were a little rough," Skurla said. "I just think of them as practice holes, warmup holes. Then I got myself together, got into my routine and stepped up.
"I think the first couple of holes it was just nerves, so it was just getting that out of the way coming in because last year I won and I felt like I had to come in and perform. So I had to brush that off and get into my groove."
"I'm just real proud of her that she battled back," Tigers coach Art Tang added. "It's probably the worst start she's ever had, so for her to battle back like that is real impressive."
Tang caught up with Skurla on the ninth hole but didn't talk to her until after the round.
"I asked her, what were you thinking on the third hole?" Tang said. "She said after the second double bogey she was really mad, then after the quadruple bogey she just said to heck with it. I'm out here, have fun. It's just golf. And she just played golf. From the third hole on that's probably the best I've ever seen her play."
"Sarah Skurla played great. Just a great round," Naperville Central coach Jane Thompson added.
Naperville Central's Emma Ondik placed second with an 81, and teammate Carolyn Wong was right behind with an 82.
"The girls played well," said Thompson, whose Redhawks defeated WW South in a dual match last week and is making a habit of shooting a 340. "Could we play better? Sure. But this is a good test of a last match of an 18-hole round that's going to take you into the regionals (next week) and sectionals. And that's what's nice about your conference tournament. You play with a little bit on the line, but it doesn't mean you're not playing tomorrow. That's that mental edge that you begin to build up."
The team title was the third straight for WW South, which got 83s from sophomore Rene Solberg and Emily Johnson and a 93 from Ayomide Coker.
"I don't know. I don't push them too hard," Tang said of his secret to success. "I just motivate them to play and practice in the off-season. And I've just been really lucky and blessed to have a couple of girls every year that come through."
This is the slow part of the year for Solberg and Skurla, who spend their summers playing tournament after tournament.
"I try to tell them this is when they usually get worse, because this is the least amount they play all year because they're in school instead of practicing and the days are shorter," Tang said.
Naperville North took third with a 375. Wheaton North was fourth at 397, and West Aurora came next at 408.
Renee Christensen shot a 98 and Lari Mitchell a 99 for West Aurora.
"I'm very pleased with that," Blackhawks coach Chris Soulsby said. "We've got a really young time. Renee is my only senior. We've got two juniors and the rest are all freshmen and sophomors on my varsity. To see them progressing and see them getting experience like this is awesome. They've done progressively better throughout the year."
West Chicago was sixth at 446, followed by Glenbard North's 459 and Glenbard East's 462.