St. James girls meet expectations with Class AAA state golf title

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the St. James girls golf team this year was simply keeping expectations tempered.

Hey, with everybody returning from last year's Class AAA runner-up team, a championship was rather easy to envision. But it's not what anyone in the Sharks' inner circle wanted to hear.

“Everyone kept telling us, ‘You're a shoo-in. You're going to win,’ ” coach Denise Noll recalled. “Nope, it's got to be one match at a time. Finally once we got to this weekend, we said we were going to win.”

They followed through, too. With emphasis.

Propelled by their extraordinary depth, the Sharks finished off their first state title in the sport Tuesday by holding off a dogged challenge from Victoria Huskey and her Travelers Rest teammates, emerging with a seven-shot triumph at Port Royal Golf Club.

Despite a series of passing showers on the Barony course – but not the gusty winds that marked Monday's opening round – all five St. James players shot 87 or better on the final day. Toss out that 87, and the Sharks counted nothing higher than an 82.

St. James posted a team score of 320 Tuesday, leaving them with a 654 total. Travelers Rest, paced by Huskey's 4-under-par 68 that produced a second straight individual title, carded a second-day 321 to finish at 661.

“We've been stressing that all year – our team is deep,” Noll said. “We don't need to rely on one player or two players. … One (score Tuesday) stayed the same and one went up a few, but the others went down a ton.”

Huskey's 68 not only was the lone sub-70 round of the tournament, allowing her to storm back from a three-shot deficit in the individual competition, it marked the first time she'd ever gone an entire round without a bogey.

“It means a lot, because I've worked for this,” said the Travelers Rest senior, who on Monday called her opening 78 the worst round of her year. “Yesterday I thought I'd fallen out of it. I knew I had to come on strong.”

Huskey's closest call to a bogey came on the 10th hole, where she hooked her drive into the water left of the fairway. After the penalty drop, though, she striped her approach in the rain to 15 feet and drained the putt.

“She was driven,” Travelers Rest coach Elizabeth Nix said. “When it's time to take care of business, that's her agenda and she handles it. I've never really seen a player like her.”

Tuesday's victory also allowed Huskey to match her brother, current USC golfer Keenan Huskey, with two state championships. Keenan Huskey, by the way, claimed medalist honors Monday as the Gamecocks won the Camden Collegiate Invitational.

Beth Ann Townsend, No. 2 for Travelers Rest, also improved 13 shots from her opening round. But the Lady Devildogs could not close the gap on St. James.

Freshman Smith Knaffle paced the Sharks with scores of 75-78, while senior Kelli Smith posted a pair of 79s to join her teammate on the all-Class AAA team. Jordan White, Steely Hays and Katie Smith, meanwhile, combined for a 17-shot improvement over the first day.

“All those middle girls beating their (counterparts) made all the difference,” Noll said.

Tuesday's trophy completed a steady rise for a St. James program that didn't reach the state final until four years ago. The Sharks placed 11th that year, then rose to third in 2013 and runner-up last year.

“It's amazing,” said Kelli Smith, who along with fellow senior Hays has been part of the team going back to seventh grade.

“When we first started, we won maybe one match all year. So it's really cool to see how it's grown over the years. All of us have worked really hard. It was such a team effort. It was crazy.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 10:23 PM with the headline "St. James girls meet expectations with Class AAA state golf title."