DELAWARE – Maura Murphy is her own critic.
The Pleasant senior won the second Mid Ohio Athletic Conference girls golf tournament of the season on Tuesday, but she wanted more after shooting a 75 at Oakhaven.
“I was struggling myself. I had to finish my round and play as well as I could,” she said. “The good thing is my game was pretty rough on the back. The back is pretty narrow. When we got to the front, it’s more open and there are more opportunities to maybe hit some not-so-good shots but still make pars.” “
In the end, she was good enough to win by three strokes to spare Highland’s Ceci Grassbaughwhose 78 was one shot off her 18-hole school record.
More: Best of the Week: Pleasant’s Maura Murphy leads the area’s top performers
More: HS golf guide: Pleasant girls poised to continue dynasty, plus other nuggets from the links
After a perfect summer winning seven of seven Heart of Ohio Junior Golf Association events to claim the girls 13-18 championshipMurphy hasn’t given up during the fall high school season.
The only tournament she has lost so far was the Spartans Invitational at Marion Country Club, where Olentangy standout Meadow Tian shot a 69 to Murphy’s runner-up effort of 73. She lost medalist honors to Grassbaugh during a week dual; teammate and cousin Maddie Murphy rallied to beat her 41 to 42 in another dual Monday.
Other than that, it’s been all wins for Murphy, including at a 13-team tournament in Mount Vernon.
“She’s been incredible this year,” Pleasant coach Jeff Davis said.
She shot a 31 for nine holes and a 69 for 18 this season in matches and tournaments that Davis said could be MOAC records.
“You saw what the HOJGA results were and they weren’t quite what she was up to when Dina (Shah, Pleasant graduate and former No. 1 golfer) was playing her, but she didn’t really have anyone pushing her ,” Davis said. “Now she does a little with Maddie and Ceci. It helps her when she plays with good players.”
Dynastic Spartans
Pleasant has only fielded a girls golf team for three seasons, but its dominance over the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference continues. The Spartans have yet to lose a MOAC game or tournament.
Tuesday at Oakhaven was more of the same as they shot 367 to beat second-place Ontario by 32 strokes. Clear Fork and Highland again tied for third with 451, but again the Colts clinched the spot through the fifth player tiebreaker. Galion was fifth with 482.
The Spartans lead the renewed MOAC position with 16 points.
“The rest of the girls are shooting well. Maddie is about five shots below her average last year. Anna (Songer) is one or two below hers and Maura is two shots below hers from last year,” Davis said. “It helped that they’re all doing better and for Whitney (Waddell) to come on so quickly has been really nice.”
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This article originally appeared on the Marion Star: Maura Murphy, Pleasant girls golf remains undefeated in MOAC history