By Thomas Grant, Jr.
As golfers, coaches, and spectators encircled the 18th green of the Columbia Country Club on Oct. 30, River Bluff senior standout Caitlyn Gaines sank her par putt.
It sealed a first-ever second-place finish for the Lady Gators in the S.C. High School League Division I final.
Piece of cake, what’s new, same old same old par for the course (pun intended) for Gaines, River Bluff’s lone senior. The recently named to the North/South All-Star, All-Region, and soon-to-be All-State teams’ putt was a veritable slam dunk.
What happened just before, though, was Sports Center Play-of-the-Day worthy.
Coming into the final hole, River Bluff and Lexington were tied. The Wildcats were done with their final round and were waiting and watching to see how the Lady Gators would finish. Both teams had battled all year in tournaments. The region championship had gone to Lexington, and River Bluff had finished just 10 strokes behind Lexington at the Upper State Qualifier.
With eventual Division I champion Dorman way out of reach by this point, all eyes were on the race for second place.
River Bluff freshman Charli Heaton had just come from a birdie on the 16th and a bogey on the 17th. She was looking at a 30-40 foot putt for birdie on the 18th. The prevailing idea was to just get it close to preserve par on the next putt and not fall behind Lexington.
Heaton had another idea, however.
The freshman lined up the putt and struck it…hard. The ball took off across the long expanse of green, curving its way over undulations in the direction of its final destination. But instead of coming close, the ball hit its mark, dropping into the cup to the cheers of the makeshift gallery.
Heaton did not realize the gravity of her birdie immediately. In fact, it wasn’t until she reached the scorers that she learned that her putt gave River Bluff second place outright. Once her shot rang true, her teammate had two strokes to make par within 15 feet to seal the Gators’ second-place finish.
Two sophomores and a 7th-grader made major contributions as well. Emery Jones shot an 88 in her final round, which followed an opening round of 84, putting her in 19th place overall. Merritt Wham finished in 24th with an 86 and 88 in her two rounds. Grace Shelly followed up her opening round 92 seven strokes better with a final round 85, her career low, putting her in 26th overall.
Gaines finished fifth overall and Heaton 10th to earn All-State honors.
Feature Photo by River Bluff golf – River Bluff Lady Gators
