In golf, the ability to scramble can make an average round good and a good round great.
Espn Pool proved on Tuesday that he knows how to scramble.
The St. Cloud senior missed 10 greens, but collectively played those holes to even par. Toss in three birdies and an eagle, and Pool won the 2024 Orange Belt Conference Golf Championship – shooting a blistering four-under par 68 Tuesday at windy Royal St. Cloud Golf Club.
On Monday, Bulldog Karolyna Adams rallied to shoot a 5-over 77 at Royal St. Cloud to win her second career individual title and her teammates sit on top of the OBC for a record eighth consecutive year.
Adams, a junior who also won the title as a freshman, had to fight from behind to edge out teammates Abigail Murphy (81) and Maddie Burda (82).
“I got off to a bad start and then really tripped up on a couple of holes,” Adams said of her rocky front nine. “At the turn, I really felt like I was leaving my teammates down. I refocused my attention, had some putts drop and capitalized on that momentum to shoot two under on the back.”
Adams birdied the 11th and 16th holes before putting a stamp on her championship by hitting a massive drive on 18 and rolling in a 14-foot putt on 18 for her third birdie of the side.
Thanks to St. Cloud placing its four scoring golfers in the top five overall, the Bulldogs won the team championship with a 333. Harmony was second (416) followed by Celebration (471) of those who posted team scores.
Joining Adams, Murphy and Burda on the All-Conference team (top 8) were Harmony’s Aryana Persaud (4th-92), St. Cloud’s Nadia Burda (5th-93) and Olivia Siegel (6th-94), the Longhorns Melanie Chapardy (7th-98) and Alyssa Kane (8th-99).
On Tuesday, Pool avenged losing the OBC title last year in a playoff with his solid round.
“It felt really good to win today,” Pool said. “My short game was the weakest part of my game and I really worked hard at putting and chipping over the last year and it paid off today.”
Pool came back from his only bogey of the day to birdie 5 and 9 to shoot a one-under 35 on the front side. He went to two-under with a chip in birdie on 10 and then bombed a drive over the waste area on the 515-yard, Par 5 13th. His drive caught the downslope, leaving his just about 100-yard out. Pool then flipped a wedge to within four feet and tapped in for an eagle to go four-under. His near chip-in on 18 would have tied Justin Biggs’ 28-year-old record for lowest score in OBC Tournament history (67).
For the team championship, Pool had plenty of help. Freshman teammate Dominick Velazquez grabbed second place by posting a stellar one-over 73. Bulldog junior Ethan Parrish tied for third with a 75 and Arnold Pouncy – another freshman – was fifth with a 76. That gave the Bulldogs an impressive four-over 292 team score, as the Bulldogs claimed their fifth OBC title in six years.
“Really proud of how these kids handled the pressure today.” First year St. Cloud coach Jeremy Velazquez said. “I wasn’t really surprised because I know how hard these players have worked year round and how they push each other to excel.”
Harmony, behind Cesar Gandia’s tie for third (75), finished in second place in the team race with a 327.
“I thought we played really well today,” Harmony coach Steve Durrance noted. “In a lot of years, our team score might have challenged for the title, but give St. Cloud a ton of credit. They are loaded with talent and are a really good team.”
Gateway (394) was third, followed by Celebration (413) and Tohopekaliga (462). Joining Pool, Velazquez, Parrish, Gandia, and Pouncy on the All-Conference Team were Longhorns Connor Holt (6th, 81) and Mason Collier (7th, 83); as well as Tohopekaliga junior Marcel Moran (8th, 84).
St. Cloud and other county schools return to action with district play next week. The Bulldogs will host the Class 3A, District 6 boys and girls tournaments at Royal St. Cloud where they are expected to duke it out for the team championship with Lake Nona and Viera. . The top two teams receive automatic advancement to regionals but four at-large spots across each region as also available. In addition, the top two individual players on teams not advancing secure a spot in regionals.
“Lake Nona is always an excellent team but we have played them twice this year and beat them twice, once on the home and once on the road. Viera is another really good team that was slightly ahead of us in the rankings. But we have advantage of having the district championship on our home course and as long as we play our game and don’t press, I like our chances of getting to the next round,” Coach Velazquez added.
Lake Nona will be heavily favored to win the girls district with Viera and St. Cloud expected to battle for second place.
“They put us in a new district and a new regional, so it will be a lot tougher to qualify this year,” Adams said about the new alignment which now has eight of the top 15 teams from a year ago in St. Cloud’s Region 2. “But as the competition gets more intense, I am confident we will play better.”
