Columbia Central golfers work on the putting green at practice on Thursday.

JACKSON— When all the golfers were in and all the scores were posted at Monday’s Division 4 girls golf regional at the Hills of Lenawee, the Columbia Central golfers saw their team’s name sitting in the No. 2 position on the leaderboard.

They fired a 402, 39 strokes behind Adrian Lenawee Christian, but good for second place. The Golden Eagles had punched a ticket to the state finals.

“It definitely wasn’t my best [round], I could have done better. The team struggled on Monday, but it was good enough to let us go to state,” Marisa Berro said. “We all struggled that day, but we really just all kind of knew we were going because the entire season we grew more and more, and that made us realize we could go to state.”

Logan Bentley paced the scoring with her 81. Kelsey Fausz shot a 105, Berro a 107, Ashley Yang a 109 and Iliana Fowle a 111.

With that, Columbia Central is off to state as a team for the first time since taking ninth in 2017.

“We have to be mentally prepared,” Bentley said. “If you hit a bad shot, make sure you just move on, forget about it, learn how you can improve from your mistakes. It’ll take this next week to prepare for state finals.”

With some time for practice rounds before the trip up to East Lansing, the Golden Eagles are sticking to the fundamentals.

“I always say the slogan ‘drive for show but putt for dough,’” Columbia Central coach Andrew Parkinson said. “So we spend a lot of time around the greens working on the short game and then eventually working on the range. Meadows is a fantastic course. It’s pretty difficult, a lot of sand traps so we will be working on the bunkers as well.”

For the Division 4 state meet, the Golden Eagles will be playing Grand Valley State’s Meadows, the 4,777-yard par-71.

Bentley is familiar with Meadows, having played a two-day tournament there for the Meijer-Calloway Junior Tour over the summer.

“I like the course,” she said. “It’s my style, it’s a links style course.

“You have to play with the wind. You have to eliminate the double bogeys, make sure there’s no way possible you can get a double bogey and you’ll be fine.”

The state finals marks new territory for this group of Golden Eagles, with Columbia Central boasting a roster full of freshmen and sophomores. Bentley qualified for state as an individual in 2021 where she shot a 79 and an 8 to finish ninth individually.

But from the start the key word for the Golden Eagles was belief. With such a young roster, Parkinson set the goal at the start of the season to just get to state. Now that they are there, the goal is a top-five finish.

“It started from Day 1 this season, it’s all about confidence in golf,” Parkinson said. “It’s all about belief in your abilities and putting forth the shot and having trust in your shot.”

That confidence has led to success on the course, with a second-place at Hillsdale’s Invitational and a fifth at East Jackson, to winning at Grass Lake.

“The team dynamic is pretty good,” Fausz said. “We’re always hyping each other up. It’s fine, whatever you did last round doesn’t matter this round. You are a good golfer and everybody knows it here, so just do what you can do.”

Fowle is a rarity on this Columbia Central team; an upperclassman. Her 98 at the Grass Lake Invitational on September 12 was good for seventh place and helped the Golden Eagles take first as a team. Her 95 at Calderone was key to a fifth-place finish for the team at the East Jackson Invitational.

“I love my team,” she said. “Since the team’s so small you can really make one-on-one connections with them. If you were on a different team, you might not talk to the freshmen if you were a junior or senior, but I’ve talked to the freshmen all season.”

But the consistent low-scorer has been Bentley. Since teeing off the season with a 40 at Clarklake, she has just kept rolling, shooting an 81 for the 18-hole tournament at Calderone, a 39 at Devil’s Lake for Onsted’s jamboree and a 75 at Grass Lake. Her 18-hold average is sticking in the upper-70s even with some recent struggles with her driver.

“Her nickname is ‘Showtime’ for me,” Parkinson said. “I kind of just sit back and enjoy the popcorn and enjoy the show. There’s not a lot she does wrong. She’s been struggling off the tee, been in a slump, but we’ve been working out of it.”

Despite the slump, Bentley has been fairly consistent, especially when it comes to chipping and putting.

“I spent most of my summer on the greens,” she said. “I’ve just got to work back on my driver for a little bit.”

Jackson’s Natalie Kulka fired an 82 on Thursday at Coldwater in the Division 2 regional to qualify for the state meet in East Lansing.

Kulka will play in the Division 2 state meet at Forest Akers West in East Lansing.

Lumen Christi won Tuesday’s Division 4 regional at Laingsburg. The Titans fired a 361 to beat second-place Bath by 13 strokes.

Ashley Hilderley shot an 80 to lead the way. Michaela Hauer fired a 90, Alexa Spencer a 92 and Anna McClure a 99.

Napoleon’s Anna McCubbins shot a 96 to qualify as an individual.

Concord’s Hannah Stimer and Michigan Center’s Kylie McKee each shot a 99 to qualify as individuals out of the regional at the Hills of Lenawee. Hanover-Horton’s Drew Swihart is headed to state as an individual after she shot a 104.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.

Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (User Agreement updated 1/1/21. Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022).

© 2022 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.

Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.