As Katie Grace Tuder entered the home stretch of Friday’s final round of the Division II-AA Girls State Championship at Sevierville Golf Club, she was faced with a testy chip shot on the 15^th hole after missing the green with her approach.

Suddenly, her mind shifted back in time when Baylor’s squad was tasked with a practice drill of executing 7 out of 9 up-and-down recoveries successfully before they could leave.

“I did the same drill for four hours until I completed it,” Tuder said. “We all complained about it at the time, but today it finally paid off. I didn’t have to chip until 15 and then missed the green again on 16. But I got up and down both times, and I can now understand why our coaches had us working on that drill for so long.”

Tuder’s short-game precision was complemented by the rest of her game as she captured the individual title as well as leading Baylor to its record 22^nd team championship. The senior who will continue her career next year at Washington & Lee posted a flawless 3-under 67 to win by five shots with a two-day total of 2-under 138.

“It was never the goal to be the individual champion,” Tuder said. “Winning the team championship was always what was in mind and for me to do whatever I could to produce that outcome. But now that I’ve done it, it does feel great.”

Entering the day tied for the lead with Harpeth Hall’s Olivia Jiang, Tuder parred the first hole before making birdie at No. 2. Four more pars were capped with her second birdie at No. 7 to move her into red numbers. She then proceeded to record nine straight pars before a final birdie at 17, closing out with her round with a par at the last.

“I’ve never had a bogey-free round,” Tuder said. “I tried to keep everything really simple, focusing on hitting greens and not attacking pins. If you do that you don’t make too many costly mistakes. This is the steadiest round of golf I’ve ever played. It wasn’t super spectacular, but I was able to avoid mistakes.”

Baylor found itself one shot behind Harpeth Hall entering Friday’s play but was able to gain control early thanks to the contribution from of Tuder’s teammates Charlee Spearman and Caroline Au. Spearman - only an eighth grader – opened with a birdie as he made the turn in even par before settling for her second straight 73 to finish at 6-over 146, good for fourth place individually. Au improved by six shots in posting a 75 to finish tied for 10^th at 16-over 156.

Baylor shot 140 after posting a score of 144 on Thursday to finish at 4-over-par 284, seven shots clear of runner-up Harpeth Hall’s 291 total.

Having finished her Baylor career with back-to-back state championships, Tuder reflected on her earliest days when assistant coach Rheagan Gibbs was hesitant to offer her a roster spot.

“My first year of playing golf I was really, really bad and she was going to cut me from the team,” Tuder said. “We can laugh about it now. But she’s been with me this whole time since 7^th grade and has helped get me to this point.”

Other area golfers competing as individuals included Bella Paris of Chattanooga Christian at 16-over (17^th) and Anna Kopet of GPS at 23-over (20^th).

Division II-AA Boys

Baylor finished third and McCallie landed in the fourth spot behind champion Memphis University School, which won by seven shots with a total of 11-under (565).

Baylor posted a final round score of 1-under to close the championship at 1-over (577), while McCallie was at 7-over (583) after combining to shoot 1-over on Friday.

MUS’s Brantley Moore won the individual crown by four shots over teammate Drew Knighton after carding a pair of 68s to finish at 8-under 136. McCallie’s JRob Neal tied for fourth at 3-under 141, one better than Zack Bourgeois of Baylor at 2-under 142 (T8).

McCallie’s Vidur Rajagopalan made a nine-shot improvement to shoot 68 and tied for 11^th at 1-over 145 along with Baylor’s Mason Bankston. The Red Raiders’ Jack Morgan closed with a total of 2-over 146 (13^th), one better than Blue Tornado golfer Pierce Grant at 3-over (T14).

Baylor’s Adam Lauzon and Tate Sinfield Day shot 5-over 149 (T20), and McCallie’s Crue Haisten closed at 9-over 153 (T25).

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com