Newton’s Heryford advances to state golf, Cardinal girls finish fourth at regionals

IOWA CITY — Newton junior Rylee Heryford is finally playing like she knows she can.

And after a rough start to her season, the Cardinal standout has shown in her last two 18-hole tournaments she is indeed one of the favorites to win the Class 4A title next week.

Heryford carded a 1-under-par 71 at Finkbine Golf Course on Monday. Her score was strong enough to win medalist honors and punch her ticket to the state tournament at the 4A Region 3 state qualifier.

“The season started out pretty rough, but lately I have been playing a lot better,” Heryford said. “I just needed figure out what I really wanted out of this season. I had to put things into perspective about what I needed to do and what I want to do with golf. This is a big year for me recruiting wise and I just needed to play better. I couldn’t keep playing the way I was early.”

The 71 Heryford shot on Monday was her second-best 18-hole score of the season behind the 70 she carded at Copper Creek on May 13.

Heryford was 1-under-par through nine holes and maintained that score the rest of the way as she was two shots clear of both Bettendorf’s Shannyn Vogeler and Cedar Rapids Prairie’s Addie Berg, who shot 73s. Vogeler and Berg rank No. 3 and No. 4 in 4A, respectively, in 18-hole average.

Heryford’s round included 13 pars, including five straight to complete her day. She had birdies on No. 2, No. 5 and No. 13.

“She’s locked in with everything. She’s getting off the tee better and she’s been better around the green,” Newton girls golf coach Ashley Kahler said. “I think her game is so much better now than it was at the start of the season. She’s in a good place. She’s in a good zone. She’s playing the way we know Rylee can play.”

The rest of the Cardinals ended their season shy of state on Monday. Newton finished fourth as a team with a 373. The top two teams in each regional advance to state. The Cardinals were four strokes back of runner-up Southeast Polk.

“We knew coming here that it was going to be a tough course. The rough is tough,” Kahler said. “I would have liked to see us in the 90s. We did that at conference and in some of the other recent meets. We were a little higher than I would have liked to have seen, but they took a swing at it. That’s all we can ask for.”

Bettendorf advanced to state as the regional champion after collecting a team score of 355. Southeast Polk also advanced with a 369 and the rest of the top five included Cedar Rapids Prairie (371) and Newton (373).

Completing the team scoring at Finkbine were host Iowa City West (381), Norwalk (443), Ottumwa (453), Muscatine (455), Des Moines East (481) and Burlington, which did not have enough golfers for a team score.

Abby Price was the Cardinals’ second-best scorer with a 97. Marin Pettigrew carded a 102 and Bekah Vasseau had a 103 for the final counting scores.

Ella Price (112) and Madison Price (124) turned in non-counting scores.

“The rough is thick. It pulled our clubs a lot,” Kahler said. “Some of the trees gave us trouble. The green speed is fast and they sped up even more as it got hotter outside. That was tough. We had too many three and four putts. Those are never good.”

Heryford played against Vogeler and Berg earlier this season and lost to both golfers each time.

Vogeler downed Heryford by 11 strokes in their first meeting and then was seven strokes better the second time around. In that same tournament, Berg was better than both Vogeler and Heryford.

The three standout golfers met up again at Finkbine and this time Heryford got the best of both with an impressively consistent round.

“My irons have improved a ton since last season. Being able to be more accurate with the irons has helped a lot,” Heryford said about her improvement. “My putting could be better, but I am playing about as well as I can right now. I feel like I can play with anyone. I like where I’m at.”

The state golf tournaments are scheduled for June 1-2. The 36-hole 4A tournament will be played at Otter Creek Golf Course in Ankeny.