UPPER SANDUSKY — Maura Murphy and Logan Keller are taking a two-prong approach to their summer golf seasons.
Both won their respective divisions at the Heart of Ohio Junior Golf Association’s season-opening tournament at Lincoln Hills Golf Course in Upper Sandusky on Tuesday.
“My (former Pleasant) teammate Dina (Shah) is not participating this summer, which takes out some competition for me, so my goal would be to win all of them if I can, but to have fun and improve my game for the school season,” senior-to-be Murphy said after winning the girls division.
The same goes for Galion’s Keller.
“A lot of this is to work on my game, but it’s also nice when you can come out here to compete to win. You don’t go to not win,” he said after winning the boys 16-to-18 age group .
Murphy started off the first six holes at 2-under par and came in at 39 on the front side. She shot two more birdies on the back for a 38 and finished at 77, easily outdistancing the other seven girls in the field.
“I think I could have done better,” she said. “I’ve been practicing a lot. I’m happy with the birdies I shot. I just think I made little mistakes that caused my bogeys that I could have prevented. Maybe next time. There’s always something to improve on.”
And it’s always a balancing act, she said.
“Last year my approach shots went better than my short game,” Murphy said. “This season it’s kind of flipped so my short game is pretty good, but my other shots could use a little bit of work like approaching the green and stuff.”
Her goal is to make it to the girls Division II state tournament this fall for Pleasant, so she’s putting in the work now in hopes of achieving it.
“I just think there are some shots I could have hit straighter today for sure,” Murphy said. “I can play my misses pretty well. I just think that on a course where you have to think about how you are approaching the green ― because if you hit on the green it goes over ― it makes it hard.”
As for Keller, he fired a 1-over-par 73 to win by two strokes over Chase Brackenridge of Fairbanks. The 16-to-18 class had 21 golfers from Marion and surrounding counties on Tuesday.
“I felt like my irons and wedges were really on today. My driver and 3-wood were a little rough, but I was able to fight back and just hit more fairways towards the end,” he said.
Keller had two birdies on the first nine holes to make the turn at even-par. In the final nine holes, he scored two more birdies and an eagle on the par-5 13th hole. He finished 36-37 73.
Not bad considering the start to his morning.
“I struggled on the range,” he said. “I was chunking the ball quite a bit, but I figured it out by the first hole, so I was ready to go.”
He has a busy summer schedule planned to get himself ready for the fall high school season.
“I play on about five other tours,” Keller said. “I’d say it’s three to four a week and most are two-day tournaments in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus. This is the first tournament so far, but I’ve been hitting the ball great. I’m looking forward to the other ones.”
419-610-0998
Twitter @McMotorsport
Instagram @rob_mccurdy_star
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Murphy, Keller take first HOJGA event of the season