Reese to represent Wildcats at state

Mount Vernon High School senior Libby Reese earned a trip to the IHSAA golf state finals by virtue of her score in last weekend’s regional. Photo by Garry Beeson

A year ago, three strokes kept Libby Reese out of the state tournament.

Friday, Sept 25, three strokes separated her from the regional medalist — and nothing separated the Mount Vernon senior from a trip to state.

Reese shot an 82 at Hulman Links, fifth in a 95-player field, and advanced as the first individual qualifier from the Terre Haute North Regional.

“She was prepared mentally,” coach Travis Wolfe said. “She was locked in. It was a phenomenal round.”

She opened the back nine with double bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11, the kind of start that could have let a third straight regional end the same way the first two had. Instead, she put together two par saves, birdied Nos. 15 and 16, double-bogeyed the 18th, the hardest hole on the property, and walked off with an 82.

“It’s really been her dedication to the game,” Wolfe said. “She lives golf. She’s probably on the golf course more than she’s anywhere else. She loves it.”

State is Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2-3, at Battle Ground Golf Club in Lafayette.

Wolfe said they will research the course, work short game and course management, play a practice round Thursday, and take notes.

“She’ll feel good and prepared,” he said, “before we step on the course on Friday.”

She got to Terre Haute by shooting 77 on Sept. 19 at The Farm, the top individual out of the Evansville sectional after Mount Vernon finished fourth at 361. Seven days before that, on the same course, she had become the program’s first Pocket Athletic Conference individual champion on a 15-foot playoff birdie.

“Stepping onto that playoff hole tee box, I was freaking out,” Reese said. “I could feel my heartbeat in my throat, and then just hitting a good drive, hitting a good second shot onto the green really helped calm me down. And on the putting green, it was almost like tunnel vision as I stepped over the ball, and just so happy that I made that putt.”

After that sectional she said the two regionals she had already played at Country == — 87 as a sophomore, six strokes short of state; 80 as a junior, three short — would help her handle the next one.

“It will help me keep a calm mindset and just chill out,” she said.