Hampshire’s Ellett takes Elgin CC title

Hampshire senior Connie Ellett has played the Elgin Country Club golf course more than any other in her four years, and it definitely showed on Monday.

Ellett took first place overall in the Elgin Country Club girls golf invite Monday, shooting an even-par 35. It was the second year in a row that a member of the Ellett family brought home the first place medal; Connie’s older sister Taylor, now golfing for the NIU Huskies, won it last year.

Connie Ellett felt great about her performance in this year’s tournament the entire time.

“I played really consistent,” she said. “My putting was much better than it went this weekend (at an invitational in Decatur), today I was pretty efficient. I’ve played this course a lot, at least five times over the course of my four years, so the experience definitely helped.”

St. Charles North took home the first-place team trophy, shooting a 178 as a team. Ariana Furrie led the North Stars with a score of 40, which was also good for third place overall. Geneva’s girls got the second-place team trophy, shooting 195. Team leader Abby Luchtenburg led the Vikings and came in second place overall with a score of 39.

Hampshire head coach Sue Ellett was happy with the way her team performed in the tournament against great golfers like Luchtenburg and Furrie.

“Abby and Ariana are great players,” said coach Ellett. “It was a good pairing for them, all three kids (Furrie, Luchtenburg, and Ellett) were really fun to watch.

“Connie is striking the ball really well, and we’ve just been trying to hone in on fine-tuning the short game because as the weather gets colder you have to be able to chip and putt from everywhere. She hit all nine greens today and putted pretty well. These are tough greens, very hilly and speedy, so I thought it was a very solid round for her.”