Ephrata's Peters one back of lead after Day 1

SPOKANE — Ephrata junior Kendee Peters stepped out from the trees on the par-4, 280-yard ninth hole and sized up her errant tee shot from the fairway. She hadn’t even made the turn Tuesday morning at the girls 2A state golf championships at Indian Canyon Golf Course in Spokane and already she stood at the turning point.

The District 5-6 champion had fallen seven strokes behind leader Grace Frazier of Clarkston after eight holes. One more big number would diminish her chances of contending for her second 2A state medalist title.

Peters eyed the green as playing partners Shelby Baum of East Valley and Fraizer looked on from the fairway. Peters disappeared behind a wall of Evergreens on the tree-line course, some 160 yards from her destination. With that, Peters, who has given a verbal commitment to play Pac-12 golf at Washington State University, cleared the trees with her blind approach shot, which landed just on the collar and trickled onto the green.

Peters saved par and her chances of contending for the individual state championship when the tournament continues today. Her best play of the day was when she left the troublesome driver in the bag and played the back nine in 4-under-par to finish the opening round at even-par 74.

Fraizer struggled on the back, but finished as a co-leader with Shelby Baum, both shot 73. Morgan Baum of East Valley, who was the state medalist last year as a freshman, and Jade Ming of Lynden were four shots off the lead at 77.

“That was huge to be able to save par from where I was,” said Peters, who double-bogeyed the first hole and bogeyed the second to start her round plus-3. “I was seven strokes back after nine and finally just left my driver in the bag. I learned a long time ago you just never give up. (Frazier) bogeyed 10 and I birdied and that two-stroke swing got me going.”

Frazier was 3-under par on the front nine of a course that demands spot-on accuracy with deep tree-lines on every single hole and absolutely no wiggle room. Shelby Baum, who finished 16 strokes behind Peters in the District 5-6 tournament, finished as a co-leader. She did go straight to the restaurant for a bag of ice for her right wrist following her round. The extent of her injury is unknown.

“Kenedee was so frustrated coming off the tee on the front that I finally pulled her aside and said, ‘Are you going to fold or fight?” Tigers coach Heidi Burns said. “She put her driver aside, which showed she can play smart. We’ll work on some things tonight and hopefully get it figured out for tomorrow.”

Peters was money from tee to green on the backside, hitting a brilliant 6-iron into the 10th green when Fraizer went right into the trees and Baum fell short. Tournament golf is not just a test of skill and nerves, it’s a test of keeping emotions in check, Peters said.

“You can’t be trying to fix your swing during a round, you have to play with what you got,” she said. “But by leaving my driver in the bag, that helped with my consistency. I birdied 10 and 12, which are both par-5’s, so I wasn’t terribly short off the tee using my 3-wood. I also had a birdie on 16.”

Peters will go after her second 2A state title in the past three years. She is in the final group, which goes off at 9:27 a.m.

Isabel Buchert of Ephrata finished with a 107 and Quincy’s Marlo Omlin and Anai Flores shot 111 and 122, respectively.

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com