Austin Michelle Rutledge probably will not be allowed to miss another Monahans girls golf event for the next two years.
She attended the UIL Class 3A State Girls
Golf Championships on Thursday to watch her daughter, Courtney
Rutledge, play for the first time.
All the sophomore did was shave seven strokes off her previous-best round for a 72 that helped lead Monahans to a team score of 313 and second place in the team standing behind Andrews (305) at Roy Kizer Golf Course.
I've been begging her mom to come watch her all year," Monahans coach Becky Hix said of Michelle Rutledge, who is an algebra teacher at Monahans. "She just always thought she would make her nervous, but I'm glad she was out here and got to see that."
Rutledge is tied for the medalist lead with Andrews senior Addison Long and will play in the final group in today's final round.
While standing atop the individual leaderboard is nice, Rutledge especially beamed at the team's score that gave it a 15-shot lead over both China Spring and Medina Valley for second place.
"The 313 is really cool," Rutledge said. "If we can all shoot in the high 70s, we'll do good (again)."
Monahans is at the state tournament as a team for the first time since 2004, and none of the players ever had played at state even as a medalist.
However, they had course knowledge from playing at Kizer on two different occasions this spring, and it was evident with solid scores.
Shelbye Hill rallied for an 80, Victoria Moore also had an 80 and Jordan Jernigan carded an 81. Allison Parks had an 84, thought it was not used for team scoring purposes.
Monahans has not been close to shooting 313 in previous state trips, and the gold medal could be in its grasp with another solid day and a couple of mistakes by Andrews.
"I would've wished for a 320 back then," Hix said of previous state appearances, "and 313 is great."
Rutledge helped lead the way with her round out of the No. 3 position, though she said she didn't really feel much pressure from the start of the round.
"I just felt really comfortable," she said. "It just wasn't as competitive as regional. I guess. My putting was kind of struggling, but I'd get on in two and it would be OK."
She actually was a little more than OK all day, and that helped to give Monahans a shot at the girls team's first team title.