Chesterton No. 1 golfer Kristin McCoy carries good memories of Sandy Pines into today’s regional tournament.

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Rare is the person who can play good golf in a bad mood, which bodes well for Chesterton No. 1 girls golfer Kristin McCoy in Saturday’s regional tournament at Sandy Pines.
All it takes to put McCoy in a good mood is stepping onto the grounds of the beautiful golf course in DeMotte.
“I really like Sandy Pines,” said McCoy, whose mother, Jill, is director of golf at Sand Creek and women’s golf coach at Valparaiso University. “Sandy Pines always has fast greens. Their greens are relative to Sand Creek’s greens, so I like it. That’s what I practice on.”
The reasons that put the Trojans’ top player in a good mood at Sandy Pines extend beyond how well the course matches up with her game and reach deep into her past.
“I feel like I’ve played that course a lot,” Kristin said. “My mom was friends with the old pro who was working there. She used to run the NIJGA (Northwest Indiana junior Golf Association) program, and I would go with her and her workers and would help them to set up the tees. And one of the workers was my babysitter, so I always had a lot of fun with them. Good memories.”
Shooting an 81 there as a freshman in the regional to lead the underdog Trojans to the third and final qualifying spot for the state tournament counts as another good Sandy Pines memory for McCoy. Chesterton shot a 355 that day, finishing one stroke ahead of Rochester and two strokes ahead of Lake Central.
Last season, Lake Central (338), South Bend St. Joseph (348) and Rochester (356) claimed the three spots and Chesterton finished sixth with a 376.
It likely will take four good scores for the Trojans to snag one of the three top spots. It doesn’t hurt that the Trojans teamed for their best nine-hole round of the season at Sandy Pines in a dual vs. Kankakee Valley on Aug. 21. That day, No. 2 Taylor Kisic shot a 38 with a double bogey on her final hole, McCoy carded a 40, Nos. 4 and 5 Elizabeth Dodds and Caitlyn Robison shot 47 and No. 3 Genevieve Driscoll had a 49. The team score, calculated by adding the top four scores, was 172. Doubling that could put the Trojans in contention for one of the three qualifying spots. This will be third competition at Sandy Pines this season for the Trojans and they had their second practice round there on Wednesday.
Chesterton advanced to the regional round by claiming the sectional title at Valparaiso Country Club, shooting a 356 to finish seven strokes ahead of Valpo. Bishop Noll claimed the third spot with a 452.
At the sectional, McCoy and Kisic shot 86 and Driscoll recovered from a pair of triple bogeys to start her round to finish with an 87. Dodds shot a 97, Robison a 101.
After qualifying for state in 2023, multiple Chesterton golfers said they talked ahead of time about enjoying the round in the likely event it was their last of the season because they weren’t expected to score low enough to earn a trip to state.
As an underdog again, that relax-and-enjoy-it approach could apply Saturday as well.
Based on the scores they posted at their sectional tournaments, the four schools carrying whatever burden comes with high expectations will be Munster (321), Lake Central (329), South Bend St. Joseph (329) and Penn (332).