Prep Sports

MUSCLE SHOALS — The first time Sarah Wiedeman stepped onto golf course for Alexandria, she left in tears.

The alpha of Alexandria girls golf four years ago, she endured "heck" being the only girl and struggling with the challenging game.

On Tuesday — her last time on a golf course for the Lady Cubs — it ended with tears of joy after much suspense.

With a nine-shot lead after the first day, Alexandria held off a steady Gardendale squad to on the Schoolmaster to win the Class 1A-5A State Golf Tournament by three strokes at The Shoals with a two-day 549 total.

Wiedeman, and all the other Valley Cubs golfers, had nearly assumed a second-place fate. With devious pin locations, all but one girl had checked in at least five strokes above their first-day scores that had landed them in the lead. Casey Findley turned in a 91, Madison Williams a 92 and Wiedeman 104.

Only junior Mallory Vingers came in lower, shaving off 11 strokes for a 99.

Vingers was one of the first golfers into the clubhouse. She had to sit and wait the longest while the drama unfolded on the course.

"It was horrible," she said. "There's no other sport where you have to sit and wait like that."

And that's where the tears began to come in.

Findley, the Cubs' No. 1 golfer, was playing her final hole in the final girls' group on the course. Even after a par on 17, it was still too close for anyone in orange and black to know exactly where they stood.

As Findley's day began to unravel, so, too, did Wiedeman's emotions.

The bulk of the drama unfolded at the end. Findley went out of bounds twice on the final hole en route to a dreaded double-par snowman. Even before putting out for her 8, Findley said she saw her senior teammate.

"It was the worst I'd ever played," Findley said of her second-round 91, which was good enough for fifth place in the state. "I had two out of bounds and I had my feet on the cart path (to hit another one).

"I looked over and I saw Sarah crying. I know she thought we'd blew it — we all did."

It didn't take long before the results were official, and the Lady Cubs had the title. It was the fifth state title for the girls athletic program and first for the golf team.

Wiedeman said she didn't even dare dream of a state title when she first started playing golf. As the only girl at first, it wasn't until Findley came on board that she even entertained the thought of the destiny that unfolded Tuesday.

"I caught heck (for being the only girl)," Wiedeman said. "… When Casey started playing, in the back of my mind, I thought, 'Maybe, one day, we'll [italics] make [italics] it to state.'

"This feeling, that makes all of it worth it. Every shot in the dark, every shot in the rain, every cart we wrecked, all those range balls — everything."

In the Lady Cubs' defense, their second-day mishaps weren't all that bad. No one but second-place Gardendale shot better than Alexandria's 282 team total.

And Findley, at times, was better than her first-day team-low round. She recorded six pars and drained a 45-foot putt on the Par 4 No. 3 for a birdie. Her undoing, aside from 18, was back-to-back triples on 5 and 6.

But none of the bad stuff mattered Tuesday — or will even likely be remembered in 10 years — over the feeling of being the state's best.

"I played awful," Findley said. "But right now, it's all OK."