With five holes to go in the FHSAA Class 1A girls golf state tournament at Mission Inn, Orlando rivals The First Academy and Circle Christian were tied for first on the leaderboard.
Then, on the Las Colinas Course 14th hole, TFA’s No. 1 player, Mi Li, plugged her tee shot in the rough of the tough par 4.
“We almost didn’t find it,” Li said later. “That wouldn’t have been good.”
But Li and her coach, Victoria Tanco, located the ball embedded halfway in the ground. She was OK’d by an FHSAA rules official to clean the ball and drop it.
Li’s next shot wasn’t bad, but it was headed toward a tree next to the green. The ball ricocheted off a branch and landed within six feet from the hole.
She took advantage of that good fortune with a birdie, and added another birdie on the next hole when she drained an 18-foot putt. That propelled Li to the individual championship and helped the Royals take the lead and win their second team title in three years and fourth in six seasons on Saturday.
“Those birdies really helped us coming into the last holes on a tough golf course,” Tanco said. “That gave us some breathing room.”
Li, a sophomore who was on Windermere Prep’s 1A title team a year ago before transferring to TFA, finished with a 5-under-par 66 to win medalist honors 2 shots ahead of FAU High School’s Amelie Phung.
There was a four-way tie for third individually among girls from four different area teams. Circle Christian eighth-grader Angelina Pacheco, Lake Mary Prep junior Nancy Dai, TFA sophomore Youyang Li and Windermere Prep junior Yetong Qian all shot 1-under 70.
TFA’s 286 team total was 3 strokes ahead of Circle Christian (289) and 5 better than third-place Lake Mary Prep (291) as Orlando area teams again dominated.
Area teams have won the girls 1A championship 13 years in a row. TFA, Windermere Prep and Lake Mary Prep each has four of those titles.
“It was very close all day,” said second-year Circle Christian coach Lara Van Staden. “We beat [TFA] at regional, so we knew it would be tight. We played great and I’m still happy with second.”
The 14th hole that was part of TFA’s success was trouble for Lake Mary Prep.
“Holes 12 and 14 did us in today,” Griffins coach Mike Jamison said. “But we’re a young team and look out for us next year.”
The 1A tournament, like the 3A tournament won by Lake Mary’s girls, was shortened to one day due to school closures and other complications caused by Hurricane Nicole.
On the boys’ side, FAU won the title with 294. The top area team was Circle Christian, fourth at 308. TFA was seventh with 310 and Lake Mary Prep finished 10th with 314.
The top local individual was Windermere Prep freshman Josiah Wang. He tied for third with 1-under-par 71 on the El Campeon Course behind a 70 by Jack Quinn of FAU. TFA freshman Mingbo Jiang was sixth at 72.
This report was first published at Orlandosentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.
