It had been a while since Haylin Harris had won a tournament.
The last victory for the Carmel golfer and incoming Michigan State University senior was a junior tournament. On Thursday, Harris won her first adult tournament by triumphing at the Indiana PGA Women’s Open, which took place at Plum Creek Golf Club in Carmel.
Harris led the tournament wire-to-wire, carding identical rounds of 67 on both days of the event to pick up the win. Her final total of 134 was 10 under par and nine strokes ahead of second place.
“It was actually my lowest tournament total,” said Harris. “I’ve never been in double digits before, under par.”
Harris was in control from the beginning, making six birdies in her Wednesday first round to take an early, four-stroke lead. She followed that up with another six birdies on Thursday, making four of them in the front nine. That’s a total of 12 birdies for the tournament, the most of any player.
“I just felt very comfortable with what I was doing the last few days,” said Harris. “When I knew I had a nice cushion there, I knew I didn’t need to do anything crazy. Just maintain what I was doing. I felt very calm coming down the end there.”
After receiving the winner’s trophy, Harris gave a brief speech, thanking her supporters and complimenting the Plum Creek staff for having the course in great shape after it had been drenched by rain late last week.
“When I was out here, I was like ‘Hey, it’s going to be hard to get the course ready in a couple days,’ but I couldn’t believe how well they did,” said Harris. “The balls were bouncing way down the fairway today and they had it very firm, so they did a phenomenal job getting it dried out in time.”
Harris will soon be headed back to Michigan State for her senior year. The Spartans won the Big Ten tournament last season, qualifying for the regional and eventually the NCAA national tournament, where they finished 16th.
“We have three freshmen coming in and they’re all really good, and we’ve got a couple of really good returners, so I think we’re going to have a really strong team again this year and do some good stuff,” said Harris.
Zionsville’s Claire Edwards and Fountaintown’s Anneliese Fox each carded 143s to tie for the runner-up position; both golfers had two-under par 70s in their second round.
Four other Hamilton County players finished in the top 10. Carmel’s Angelica Pfefferkorn, a Guerin Catholic graduate now playing for Oklahoma State University, placed fourth with an even-par 144. Pfefferkorn had seven birdies over the course of the tournament.
Noblesville’s Macy Beeson, an incoming Lapel junior, took fifth by scoring 145. Beeson made an eagle during her first round, taking care of the par-4 Hole No. 10 in two strokes. She also made one birdie in the second round.
Two Carmel golfers tied for sixth. Incoming sophomore Michaela Headlee scored a 146, draining seven birdies along the way. Sydney Longstreth, a new Carmel graduate headed to Ohio University, also scored a 146, including a one-under 71 for her first round, and made seven birdies.
Noblesville’s Caroline Whallon tied for 19th place, but had the second-most birdies at the event, making nine of them. Whallon will be a junior for the Millers this season.
Fishers’ Marissa Spreitzer, a senior-to-be at Hamilton Southeastern, and Zionsville’s Becky Williams, an incoming senior at University, each made one eagle in the first round. Spreitzer eagled Hole No. 3, while Williams eagled Hole No. 17.
Williams placed 11th, while Carmel’s Elizabeth Hedrick took 14th. Whallon was joined in the 19th-place tie with Carmel’s Christina Pfefferkorn (an incoming Guerin Catholic senior) and two Westfield golfers, Brette Hanavan and Adrienne Montalone, who is playing out of Prairie View Golf Club.
Results for Hamilton County golfers now follow:
1. Haylin Harris, Carmel 67-67=134, 4. Angelica Pfefferkorn, Carmel 72-72=144, 5. Macy Beeson, Noblesville 72-73=145, T6. Michaela Headlee, Carmel 73-73=146; Sydney Longstreth, Carmel 71-75=146, T11. Becky Williams, Zionsville (University High School) 73-76=149, T14. Elizabeth Hedrick, Carmel 74-76=150, T19. Christina Pfefferkorn, Carmel 76-75=151; Brette Hanavan, Westfield 76-75=151; Caroline Whallon, Noblesville 75-76=151; Adrienne Montalone, Prairie View GC, 73-78=151, T26. Samantha Brown, Westfield 78-74=152; Kristtini Hunt, Fishers 76-76=152, T35. Yanah Rolston, Fortville (Hamilton Southeastern) 79-74=153, T38. Kamryn Williams, Carmel 79-75=154; Sophie McGinnis, Westfield 73-81=154; T44. Marissa Spreitzer, Fishers 79-76=155; Ava Hedrick, Carmel 79-76=155; Kelly Kluesner, Noblesville 76-79=155; Ava Nguyen, Carmel 75-80=155, T58. Sarah Brenneman, Noblesville 81-77=158, T60. Margaret Wentz, Westfield 77-82=159; Sydney Hruskoci, Fishers 83-76=159, T64. Ellie Karst, Noblesville 82-79=161, T75. Lillian McVay, Fishers 85-80=165, 88. Addison Kooi, Westfield 91-87=178, 89. Maya Berglund, Carmel 85-95=180, 92. Ann McNulty, Noblesville 94-91=185.