With coaches and parents feverishly texting one another from various points on the golf course, it would have been easy for the girls on Center Grove and Franklin’s teams to stay dialed in with where they stood on the scoreboard.
Abby Rich wanted nothing to do with it during Wednesday’s Johnson County tournament — even going so far as to ignore her own playing partners.
“I tune it out by not watching my opponents,” the Center Grove junior said. “I actually turn and look away when they’re putting.”
Putting the blinders on worked for Rich, who shot an even-par 72 from the No. 3 spot in the lineup to lead the Trojans to a six-stroke victory over host Franklin at The Legends.
Fifth-ranked Center Grove (302) also got rounds of 75 from Camille Short and Sage Parsetich and an 80 from Lexi Stuart, who bounced back after struggling on the front nine.
Those efforts were all very much necessary to hold off the No. 7 Grizzly Cubs.
“We’ve been fortunate to pull these out here recently,” Center Grove coach Cale Hoover said of the county rivalry against Franklin, “but … it doesn’t seem like they were ever easy, and certainly not today. Both teams played really well.”
The Grizzly Cubs were led by freshman Lexi Ray, who earned tourney medalist honors with a 2-under-par 70.
Ray, who collected seven birdies, credited her wedge play with leaving her several short putts on the afternoon.
“I hit 15 greens today, and I probably stuck it closer than five feet all day,” she said. “That really helped.”
Junior Addie Livorno added a career-best 76 for Franklin, followed by Addi Bright (80) and Reese Phillips (82).
Whiteland finished third in the team standings with a 397, paced by matching 89s from Chloe Cooper and Kylie McGovern at the top of the lineup. Greenwood (421) was fourth, led by a 94 from Emma Baker.
Hannah Emenhiser shot an 82 for fifth-place Indian Creek (436), the lowest round from any player not on Center Grove or Franklin. Edinburgh and Greenwood Christian followed with respective team scores of 445 and 459.
The focus at the end, though, was on the Trojans and Grizzly Cubs, who will see plenty of each other as the season progresses — including big September matchups in the sectional at Hickory Stick and the regional back here at The Legends.
Ray says that coming so close to victory on Wednesday should provide her team with some motivation later on.
“We definitely have fire under our skins,” she said.
Center Grove, meanwhile, is hoping to keep rolling in the right direction coming off of this win.
“We played well this past Saturday, so we’re just really looking to try to continue to build momentum,” Hoover said. “It’s a group that I think can do some pretty special things, but we do have to get everybody cranking on all cylinders. We’re not quite there yet, but it really does feel like we’re starting steps in that direction.”
