High school girls golf: Park City edges Juan Diego in playoff to win its first-ever state championship

Park City’s first-ever state girls golf championship was so sweet at Glendale Golf Course in Salt Lake City on Thursday that the Miners got to celebrate it twice, with a whole lot of nervousness in between. “An emotional roller coaster,” said Park City girls golf coach George Murphy after noting how the program has been the bridesmaid but never the bride with eight second-place finishes since girls golf became its own UHSAA-sponsored sport in 2008. Until now.

To win the team title, Park City had to beat runner-up Juan Diego in a one-hole playoff — the Par 4 10th hole at Glendale — with a four-player aggregate score of 18. The Soaring Eagle shot a 21, as a couple of players hit approaches over the green and Park City’s Eleanor Henderson, Chloe Aldous, Madeline Hadar and Ava Miller were solid tee to green. Meanwhile, Crimson Cliffs senior Kate Walker got to celebrate for a third time, as the Utah Tech-bound star won medalist honors for the third time in four years, carding a two-round total of 8-under 136 to win top honors by nine shots over Orem’s Kaylee Westfall.

“I am proud of myself for working hard, coming back from last year (when she was second) after a car crash (in which she fractured a pinky finger) two weeks before the state tournament,” Walker said. With the course set up a little more difficult on Thursday than on Wednesday when she also fired a 68, Walker said she never counted her chickens until that final putt dropped for another stellar 4-under round. “It may seem like I had a big cushion, but in your mind it is never over until it is over,” she said.

“I got a little frustrated because I made a couple of bogeys. ” Walker won’t have much time to celebrate; She’s entered in an Utah Junior Golf Association event the next two days at TalonsCove GC in Saratoga Springs. As for the Miners, they planned to hit a restaurant in Park City to celebrate the historic win — for a third time.