Marissa Balish is one of the top players on the Hampton High School boys golf team. Put her against her own gender, and she doesn’t have a peer in the WPIAL.
Balish, a senior, won the WPIAL Class AAA girls individual championship Tuesday at Rolling Hills Country Club in McMurray. After a shaky front nine, Balish shot a sizzling 3-under-par 33 on the back to finish at 2-over 74. She beat three other girls who tied for second at 77.
Balish plays on the Hampton boys team because the school does not have a girls team. She plays from the women’s tees in Hampton’s boys matches and helped the team win a section title this year. She was the medalist in some boys matches.
But girls who play on boys teams must compete against girls in the individual championships. Balish came close to winning the title two years ago, finishing tied for third. A year ago, she did not finish in the top seven and failed to qualify for the PIAA tournament.
“I was sort of scared after that front nine that I wasn’t even going to make it through again [to the PIAA tournament],” said Balish, an Ohio University recruit. “But I had to stick it out. I started hitting better shots and making some putts.”
Consecutive birdies on the par-5 12th and par-4 13th fueled Balish on the back nine. She finished strong with a birdie at No. 18, a 353-yard par 4.
Club selection also might have helped Balish. She stopped using her sand wedge on the back nine and started using an extra club on some shots.
“My sand wedge was hurting me on the front nine and I was coming up short on a lot of greens,” she said. “So [on the back nine], if I was sort of in between clubs, I would just go with the one that was a little more instead of a little less.”
The three players who tied for second at 77 were Central Valley senior Maddy McDanel, North Allegheny freshman Christina Lewis and Pine-Richland freshman Lauren Freyvogel.
McDanel, who finished sixth a year ago, had a 38 on the front nine, but had bogeys on Nos. 11 and 15, and had a double bogey on 18.
Class AA
Greensburg Central Catholic junior Olivia Zambruno won her second consescutive Class AA title with a score of 76. Neshannock senior Marissa Kirkwood, an SMU recruit, was second at 81.
Zambruno was a heavy favorite and not just because she was the defending champion. She shot 69 at the semifinals last week, while no other golfer shot better than 82.
“I guess there was a little bit of pressure coming in [as the favorite],” Zambruno said . “I didn’t necessarily have a target score to shoot. I just thought I needed to hit good shots in the fairway and visualize every shot before I hit it. Probably my driving is what helped me the most because there were a lot of holes that were tricky off the tee.”
Zambruno’s story is somewhat similar to that of Balish. She played on the Greensburg Central Catholic boys team the past two seasons because the school didn’t have a girls team. But GCC started a girls team this year. Zambruno’s younger sister, Abby, a freshman, finished sixth with a 94.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1975 and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.
First Published: October 7, 2015, 4:00 a.m.