FLOSSMOOR | Marian Catholic junior Sylvie Brick used the Class AA Marian Catholic Regional at Coyote Run Golf Course to try out a new putter.
The verdict: She's going to keep it.
Brick had just 28 putts in shooting an even par 71 Wednesday afternoon to take home the first place medal, topping Homewood-Flossmoor's Ashley Armstrong by one stroke.
The Vikings easily won the regional title with a score of 294, besting the second-place Spartans by 40 strokes.
"I was putting horribly the last couple times I played, just awful, awful putts," said Brick. "I figured it couldn't get any worse. The new putter definitely worked."
But it wasn't just the putting that worked for Brick, a transfer from Morgan Park Academy where she played on the boys' team.
"It all just kind of came together," she said. "If I hit a bad chip then I made the putt. If I hit an errant drive I'd get the next one on the green. I just never really had two bad shots in a row."
For H-F, it was a typically dominant win, with Ryann Gilley (73), Lauren Dawson (74) and Michelle Mayer (75) joining Armstrong to put up four of the day's top six scores.
"It wasn't my best day," Armstrong said of her performance. "My irons were pretty consistent. I hit 14 out of 18 greens. But I need to work a little bit on my putting and my driving. They were just a little bit off today."
While it might have been surprising for some to not see one of the Viking's talented golfers atop the leader board when all was said and done, Armstrong says that's not how the team operates.
"We try not to think like that," the Viking senior said. "We're all supporting each other and keeping each other up. We want to keep that team spirit there so we can hopefully bring it to state."
Joining H-F and Marian as team sectional qualifiers was Lincoln-Way East, which took third place with a 358.
Illiana Christian's Lauren Drew shot a 92 and qualified as an individual.
The sectional will be held Monday, once again at Coyote Run, though this time hosted by Homewood-Flossmoor. Coyote Run is also the Vikings' home course.
"It's a home field advantage," Armstrong said. "Hopefully next week we can build some confidence heading to state."
""We had two goals this season: We wanted to win conference, and we did that," said Brick. "The next goal was to get to state. I think this was a good warm-up. We're going to keep being patient and positive and stay focused, and hopefully we'll get there."
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