Kamas battles emotions to win
Sophomore earns medalist honors at Kingfisher tourney, team takes 3rd
KINGFISHER SOPHOMORE Maddi Kamas hits a drive during the Kingfisher Tournament last week. She shot a 70 to win medalst honors. KHS was third as a team. [Photo by Russell Stitt/www.stitt.smugmug.com]
KARI SHEPARD watches a putt during her round at Kingfisher's tournament last week. She earned closest-to-the-pin among all golfers during her day. [Photo by Russell Stitt/www.stitt.smugmug.com]
ALEXIS STITT watches a chip shot near the green. [Photo by Russell Stitt/www.stitt.smugmug.com]
SIERRA TOWNSEND watches a chip shot. She shot a 98 for the Lady Jackets. [Photo by Russell Stitt/www.stitt.smugmug.com]
Maddi Kamas was trying to think of birdies, but couldn’t keep her mind off her dog.
As tough as it was, the Kingfisher High School sophomore fought through the Oklahoma wind, a solid field of golfers and even a few tears to put together perhaps her best round of the season.
Kamas won medalist honors Wednesday at the Kingfisher Large School Invitational at Kingfisher Golf Course. She shot a 34 on the back-nine to finish with a 2-under 70, her second consecutive under-par round and third straight individual victory.
But this one was tougher than the others.
Just hours before, Kamas sat on her back porch clutching her miniature Schnauzer, Harley, before he was laid to rest in the back yard.
Harley was a family pet, yes, but he was Maddi’s dog.
They’d been together for 10 years when she personally picked him from a litter.
“I remember picking him because he was so playful and energetic,” Kamas said. “I had a very special bond with him.”
When Maddi was younger, she’d have tea parties with Harley and they’d play hide-and-seek. He waited at the door for her to get home, slept in her bed and even put his head on the pillow next to hers.
But Harley got sick and, eventually, couldn’t get better.
With the Kingfisher tournament on the horizon, Harley passed away, understandably leaving Kamas an emotional mess well into her 18 holes on Wednesday.
“I found it very hard to concentrate,” she admitted.
She birdied the first hole, but bogeyed the second. Her tee shot on the third hole found the huge tree in the middle of the fairway and she eventually carded a double-bogey.
That’s when it hit her.
“All of my emotions flared up and I started to cry a few holes,” she admitted.
Kamas settled down, got it back to 1-over by the end of the front-nine, then turned it on during the back-nine, despite constant winds of 20-30 miles per hour.
She had four birdies and just one bogey on the back and eventually won the tournament by five strokes over Perkins-Tryon’s Logan Allen.
Her score also helped the Lady Jackets to their best round of the season.
Kingfisher’s 360 was good for third place in the tournament, but was 18 strokes better than last Monday’s round at Elk City and 34 strokes better than the score that won at the Putnam City Invitational the previous week.
Alexis Stitt (92) and Sierra Townsend (98) had their best rounds of 2019.
“I’m very excited about those rounds,” said KHS girls golf coach Audra Smalley. “But they still know they can shoot lower.”
Katey Brickman carded a 100 and Olivia Wilcox shot a 103.
“Those two started playing about two months ago and are already close to breaking 100,” Smalley said.
Continued improvement among that quartet of golfers is something Smalley is excited to watch.
“We have a young team and our goal over the next year is to get all those girls consistently shooting in the mid- to high-80s,” she said. “We will be very competitive. They are hard workers and they want to improve and have excellent attitudes.”
Perkins-Tryon won the team title with a 349. Purcell bested KHS by a single stroke and was second at
359.
The Lady Dragon’s Jade McCurdy shot a 78 as did Guthrie’s Drew Dodgion.
McCurdy eventually won third individually on a scorecard playoff that went to the fifth hole.
Pauls Valley was fourth in the team standings at 368 and Marlow fifth at 379.
Individually for KHS, Kari Shepard shot a 104 and won the closest-to-the-pin competition. Grace Stinnett, in her first tournament, shot a 132. Cashion’s Macey Patterson, also playing individually, finished at 100.
Smalley wasn’t surprised Kamas was able to settle in and win yet another golf tournament.
“Her course management and attitude is not typical of someone so young,” she said. “She has amazing maturity and it shows in how she plays the game.”
Mature or not, Wednesday wasn’t easy for the Oklahoma City University commit.
“I feel like I could have played a little better, but overall I was happy with my ball striking and putting,” Kamas said.
Through it all, her mind was on Harley.
“I managed to control my emotions and continued to play,” she said. “But every shot I thought about him. It was very hard.”
Team Standings
Perkins-Tryon 349 Purcell 359 Kingfisher 360 Pauls Valley 368 Marlow 379 Piedmont 384 Guthrie 399 Bridge Creek 404 El Reno 404 Chisholm 434 Weatherford 438 Bethany 521
Top Individuals: 70 - Maddi Kamas, Kingfisher; 75 - Logan Allen, Perkins-Tryon; 78 - Jade Mc-Curdy, Purcell and Drew Dodgion, Guthrie; 81 - Hannah Torres, Piedmont.