Craig leads the way as Stars top Brownstown at Otis Park

BNL’s Kenley Craig watches her iron shot to the first hole during Thursday’s match with Brownstown. Craig birdied the opening hole while carding a 43 on the front nine at Otis Park.

By Justin Sokeland

WBIW.com

BEDFORD – Kenley Craig played the first hole like she owned it.

Drive down the middle, perfectly-struck wedge that bounced and spun with professional precision, settling six feet below the hole. Birdie. How easy was that?

Craig’s opening birdie, plus two other pars, powered her to medalist honors with a 6-over 43 on the front nine of Otis Park as Bedford North Lawrence topped Brownstown 186-216 on Thursday afternoon.

Chloe McFaddin added a 47 for the Stars, who are closing on the postseason. They will compete in the Hoosier Hills Conference and sectional tournaments next week, so the fine-tuning and tinkering process has reached an important phase.

”Now is the time to focus on our scoring,” BNL coach Kori Johnston said. “We plan to work a lot on how to recover from tough shots and how to play smart golf to prepare for the big tournaments. With a little fine tuning, I believe we’ll be ready to compete.”

All of the Stars had at least one major problem, leading to double- or triple-bogeys on the scorecard. Craig parred the fourth and seventh holes to offset her troubles on the par-5s.

BNL’s Chloe McFaddin fired a 47 during her round on Thursday.

“Kenley played much better tonight,” Johnston said. “She worked a lot on her chip shots and pitch shots at practice yesterday, and it showed tonight. Now we just need to get three more scores back down into the low 40s where they should be and we’ll be looking good.”

Daphney Sproles, Ellie Horton and Samantha Biel all had 48s to cap BNL’s scoring. Hannah Hackman paced the Braves with a 49.

BNL will compete at Franklin Central on Saturday.

BNL 186, Brownstown 216

BNL – Kenley Craig 43, Chloe McFaddin 47, Daphney Sproles 48, Elllie Horton 48, Samantha Biel 48

Brownstown – Payton Ault 57, Lexie Satterthwaite 56, Hannah Hackman 49, Emma Hughbanks 54, Kelsey Ault 58