Franklin’s Lexi Ray will compete in the U.S. Girls Junior next week in California.
Daily Journal file photo
Lexi Ray was a little bit tired of playing the bridesmaid role this summer. She picked a good time to do something about it.
Playing under some difficult conditions last month in the heat and humidity at Delaware Country Club in Muncie, the Franklin native was able to close the door on her competition at the Indiana Golf Girls State Junior Championship, finishing the three-day tourney with a 73-74-74—221 card to win by two strokes.
Three shots down to Ashley Kirkland of Newburgh after the first round, Ray drew even on the second day and then emerged on top in round three, holding off a late charge from Fort Wayne’s Taylor Larkins. She closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th to seal it.
Ray was thrilled to snap a summer string of close-but-no-cigar finishes.
“After my past few tournaments, with being in the final group and just not being able to come out on top after the last day, I’m happy that I finally was able to push through and be able to get that win,” she said.
“Especially that win. I would say that was a good one to get.”
There certainly are some notable perks.
With her state victory, Ray became one of 48 players nationwide to earn an exemption for next week’s U.S. Girls Junior Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, California. Stroke-play competition here will begin on Monday. Johnson County has some history at the event; Center Grove graduate Erica Shepherd, now playing professionally on the Epson Tour, won the title in 2017.
Ray is setting more moderate expectations than that; she just hopes to advance into match play and extend her first-ever trip to the West Coast for as long as she can.
Just making it there was the realization of a preseason goal.
“It’s just so exciting,” Ray said. “One, I’ve never even been to California before, that far out west, so that’ll be exciting just to be able to go travel and do those things — and just being able to play with the players that, obviously, I’ve looked up to and I see all over my Instagram and stuff like that, and I’m like, ‘I know I can play there.’ And the exposure I’m going to get is huge.”
In addition, Ray received an exemption for the Junior PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland (July 30 to Aug. 2). She also bagged an American Junior Golf Association exemption for a year’s worth of events — “I can get into some cool tournaments with that,” Ray said — but she doesn’t plan to take advantage of that until next spring.
Depending on how long she lasts in California, Ray is planning to play in the Indiana Women’s Amateur in Yorktown (July 22-24) before heading to Maryland. The high school golf season will begin almost immediately thereafter on Aug. 5, but the hectic pace of the next few weeks is a tax that the Franklin junior-to-be is willing to pay.
She has high hopes for the Grizzly Cubs this fall, including perhaps a top-five state finish as a team — especially after classmate Addi Bright won the Central Junior Masters at the beginning of this week. Ray is also confident that these upcoming out-of-state events will help boost her confidence for a possible run at an individual state championship.
“It’s nice to be able to go play in those types of tournaments with that type of field and competitiveness there and then be able to come to Indiana and just have that mindset of, ‘I’ve played in high levels before,’” she said. “Especially with state coming up. Obviously, these are going to be pressure situations. … Last year I felt like some of the pressure got to me at state. I feel like playing in these tournaments, where I’m going to have pressure, is really going to help me succeed this year.”
At the Girls State Junior, she proved to herself and everyone else that she can handle crunch time.
“I needed a tournament like this to kind of break through,” Ray said.
