Salem High junior Ashnoor Kaur won the individual championship at the Virginia High School League Class 4 state golf tournament Tuesday. Kaur shot a 71 at the Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg to win over a field of the 60 best golfers in Class 4.
“We knew it was going to be a tough day when we got to the links and it was cold and extremely windy,” said Salem coach Blaine Hancock. “Ashnoor battled back to claim the state title, a third straight individual state champion in golf from Salem!”
Kaur had a tough start through the first few holes with the wind. She was plus three through six holes before making a big birdie on the par five seventh hole. She had a little slip at hole eight with a bogey before posting a par on the ninth and finished with a plus three 37 on the front nine.
“On the back is when she took over,” said Hancock. “The field started to slip as the wind continued to pick up and the back nine is much tighter than the front and you have to execute to score.”
Ashnoor rattled off six straight pars to open the back nine, including two incredible up and down saves.
“Coming to hole 16, she is sitting a plus three, but the last three holes are score-able,” said Hancock. “She piped her drive on the par five 16th, sitting a little over 200 out in the middle of the fairway. She rips her second shot at the pin and it hits the stick on the fly! The ball falls down and leaves a pitch mark two inches from the hole before rolling out to 15 feet. An incredible shot that set her up to score.”
Kaur barely missed the eagle, but tapped it in for a birdie to get her score back to plus two. Then, coming to the short par three 17th, she hits her tee shot to 10 feet and sinks another birdie. She’s now down to the final hole, the par five 18th.
“She hits a great tee shot, but it barely finds the right rough,” said Hancock.
After a slight mishit on the second it rolled out to be a perfect layup. A little over 110 yards out, she sticks her third shot to about 15 feet. She has a downhill slider for birdie, but that putt lipped out and she made a tap in par to post a plus one 71.
“When she finished, we didn’t think it would be enough,” said Hancock. “We play in a loaded field, but we just had to wait and see. Everyone in the field seemed to fall back on the back nine. With the wind picking up, nobody could touch Ashnoor’s score crowning her as the Class 4 State Champion!”
Ashnoor grabbed three birdies on the day.
“Her determination to keep going got her this title,” said Hancock. “She’s worked hard all year and it paid off today! She’s made us proud both on and off the course. Expect more big things for this junior in the coming years.”
