Girls golf: Soto can't maintain fast start, settles for sixth

AUSTIN Samantha Soto knew she'd have to go low in the second round of the UIL Class 3A Girls State Golf Championships to have a shot at a medal.

The way the Seminole High School senior started Friday at Roy Kizer Golf Course, it appeared that goal was on the way to becoming a reality.

But inconsistency that plagued her opening round came back and bit Soto, contributing to a round of 77 that could have been better and a two-day total of 156 that she definitely wanted to be lower.

"It was golf," Soto said. "It was a fun way to start off my last round. We'll leave at that."

Soto, whose 156 earned sixth place in the medalist standings and all-state honors for the third consecutive year, got off to a roaring start.

She was 4-under through seven holes and played herself into contention for the medalist title.

Double bogeys on her eighth and ninth holes - Nos. 17-18 on this day as the girls started off the No. 10 tee - derailed the momentum and an early birdie on the closing nine simply didn't light a fire.

Soto caught a bad break on No. 5 when she hammered a drive that skipped right off the cart path and into bad rough. Missed putts ensued for consecutive bogeys on both the fifth and sixth holes and there simply wasn't enough time left to recover.

"I had it going for about seven holes," said Soto, who will play collegiate golf at Western Texas College. "My irons were working really well and I got the putter working. I don't know. It was miserable (after the first seven holes), but I'm glad I had those five birdies."

And three consecutive top-six medalist finishes at the state tournament is nothing to be sad about, either.