Not this year for Othello golf
Brad Redford/Columbia Basin Herald<br>Othello's Kimberly Schutte crouches down on the ninth hole after finishing the front nine with a 10-over par 48 Thursday at Liberty Lake Golf Course at the 2A state golf championship.
LIBERTY LAKE — Repeating as state champions is a tough task.
Othello's Bart Patitucci's streak of state titles came to an end Thursday after finishing one stroke out of the lead for a two-day total of 147. Kimberly Schutte, last year's girls champion, finished with a 177 total at the tournament to finish fourth after winning last year's state championship.
"I was really nervous coming in," Schutte said.
Schutte's troubles began late in her first round Wednesday when she committed a triple-bogey on the eighth hole to move to 4-over par. On the back nine, she hit double-bogey's on the 10th, 13th and 17th holes for a final total of 86 and seven strokes off the lead.
Trying to make up ground Thursday, Schutte couldn't break a bogey streak and moved out of contention with a front nine 10-over par.
"I knew by the ninth hole that I wasn't going to make up the strokes from the front nine and yesterday," Schutte said.
By the 13th hole, Schutte started to relax and picked up a par on the short 315-yard par 4.
"She finally lightened up," said Othello girls golf coach Heather McDonald. "Her stride changed, she smiled and she started talking."
For Patitucci, he started four strokes back of the lead on Thursday and was 3-under par through 12 holes before running into a patch of bad luck. On the 13th, Patitucci had a double-bogey, then bogeyed the next two holes to move to 1-over par and a two-day total of 147, just losing to Ridgefield's Cole Alford, who won the 2A state title with a 146 in sudden death over Lakeside's Brandon Filion.
"He got off to a better start," Othello boys head coach Wayne Schutte said after Patitucci started the tournament with a triple bogey on the first hole. "He could have been there, but it wasn't good conditions this morning."