State champs

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: July 25, 2019

Borders, Dyar carve up back nine at Gadsden CC, win State Women’s Four-Ball by 3

By East Alabama Sports Today

GADSDEN – Two years in contention taught Chloe Borders and Layne Dyar the scores they needed to shoot in the final round to win the Alabama State Women’s Four-Ball Championship. On Thursday, they put all that knowledge to good use.

The two Silver Lakes staffers and Jacksonville State teammates shot a bogey-free 5-under-par 66 Thursday at Gadsden Country Club to close out a 7-under 135 and win the title by three shots.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Dyar said. “This is something we’ve been trying to do for a while now, so to be able to finally do it is pretty great.”

They entered the day tied for the lead with Annalee Stephens of Florence and Jasper’s Hannah Pope.

“We were both pretty calm about it,” Borders said. “We both knew how we had to play and what we had to shoot, what kind of score we had to post to be competitive today, and I think we did that.”

The back nine was especially kind to the winners this week. They played the side in 9-under and the only holes they didn’t birdie over the two days were 10 and 16. They started on the back Wednesday and went out in 5-under 31. They were 4-under Thursday, roaring back from a two-shot deficit at the turn.

“Yesterday after the first nine holes we were doing well and we just wanted to keep making birdies and we put a little bit too much pressure on ourselves,” Dyar said. “Today after nine holes we were a couple shots behind the girls we were playing with and we told each other if we could just stay calm and hit fairways and greens the putts would fall.”

And that’s exactly what happened. They made consecutive birdies on 11, 12 and 13 – the first two by Borders and a hole out from the bunker by the recently engaged Dyar. They added another birdie on 17 to extend their lead.

“I missed multiple putts on the front nine, so we turned to the back and Layne said pretty nicely but basically let me read your putts,” Borders said. “I needed her to because I was missing all of them. I said you line up my putts and I’ll putt it, and that’s what we did – and it worked. I think the first day she made four birdies on the back and today I think she made two and I made two. I definitely would not have made them without her helping me with the line. Teamwork for sure.”

Of all the birdies, it’s that bunker shot on the par-3 13th they’ll probably remember most.

“I hit it on the green and Layne hit it in the bunker, but I just knew (she’d make it),” Borders said. “She looks so confident I think she’s really going to hit a good shot out – and she ended up chipping it in. It was awesome. That was the best part for me to get to watch her chip it in. I think it definitely boosted both of our confidence going into the last stretch.”

Auburn’s Anna Claire Little and Elisabeth Preus won a scorecard playoff over Stephens and Pope for second.