Ankeny’s Madalyn Ross sits in the middle of the pack following the opening round of the girls’ Class 4A state golf meet.
Ross carded a 19-over-par 89 on Thursday at Waverly Municipal Golf Course. The sophomore is in 39th place in a field of 71 golfers.
Ross lost nine strokes to par on a pair of holes on the front nine. She had a 9 on the par-4, No. 3 hole and later had a quadruple bogey on the par-4, No. 7 hole.
“Madalyn was hitting the ball so well today,” said Ankeny coach Kelley Emke. “Unfortunately, she had two holes where she went out of bounds twice on the same shot. That is tough to come back from, but both times she did. The adrenaline combined with the nerves just resulted in her hitting clubs a little further than normal. But she stuck with it and competed, and that is what we want to see.”
Starting on No. 9, Ross made a par on five of her next seven holes. She then closed out her round with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17.
Kylie Wachtl of Cedar Rapids Prairie shot a 68 to take a three-stroke lead over Adalyn Wiig of Waukee Northwest. Wachtl had a 32 on the back nine, including five birdies.
Ross is slated to tee off for the final round at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. She will begin the round on No. 10, playing again with Cathrine Perfect of Council Bluffs Lewis Central and Harper Wilson of Marshalltown.
“I’m excited for (Friday) to see how she improves,” Emke said.