Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
WAITSBURG - As he accepted the well-deserved recognition as an athlete scholar during the track and field awards ceremony at the high school auditorium Tuesday night, lone Cardinal golfer Dakota Baker didn't have much to say.
Principal and athletics director Stephanie Wooderchak said the said the sophomore is a bit shy around large crowds. But, she warned, get him one-on-one and he'll talk your ear off about golf, the sport he loves.
Just how much Baker loves golf became apparent this season as he improved his performance on the course. So much better did he get that he competed in the final round of the state tournament in Lakewood near Tacoma this weekend and won 13th out of 80 golfers statewide who had made the cut.
The other Touchet Valley players on the Dayton-based team who made it to state were Bulldogs Dain Henderson, Molly Payne and Abby Chapman. Henderson placed 20th in the tournament.
It was Baker's first trip to state and "he looked at it as a couple more days of free golf," WP/ Dayton coach Mike McGhan said. "I'm very pleased with Dakota's effort this year. It has not been easy being Waitsburg's only golfer."
Even the Dayton players treated Baker as a "teammate," it "has to be difficult for him not seeing his fellow golfers during the school day."
But that didn't stop him from working up to the state tournament, in which he played very relaxed and only got himself in trouble on one hole, the 13th, where he took a 9 out of the woods, McGhan said.
"He chipped in on the 11th for a birdie," he said.
About Henderson, who also made it to the final round, McGhan said that he struggled that day.
"He plays very well when he's relaxed and I think he put too much pressure on himself to finish in the medals," the coach said.
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