FALL ALL-AREA: Chasteen named LCR's Girls Golfer of the Year

Reece Chasteen made her senior season a special one at Columbia.

Not only did her scores drop drastically, but she helped the Lady Tigers win their first district title since 2014. On top of that, Chasteen and company squeaked through regionals to receive an at-large berth to the state tournament.

It was an impressive final campaign for Chasteen, who averaged an area-best 38.7 per nine holes. That was a huge improvement from her junior season when she posted a 44.9 mark.

As a result, Chasteen is the Lake City Reporter’s Girls Golfer of the Year.

“I really worked on my accuracy and short game, which are two of the big things in golf,” Chasteen said. “I really buckled down on those and focused working on improving those and honing those in and having my edges all sharp.”

Chasteen is an all-around athlete, also playing softball while competing on the girls weightlifting team. In fact, she’s currently the two-time LCR Girls Weightlifter of the Year.

She has a competitive edge in every sport she plays, so it was no surprise she showed a big improvement in her final season at Columbia.

Head coach Tammy Winnett calls Chasteen committed and dedicated.

“She was really eager to do better than she did last year,” Winnett said. “She was an all-around leader on the team. She was probably the number one leader on the team pushing everybody and having them work harder at the game as well. But she also had fun with it.”

One goal in Chasteen’s final season was ending the program’s district title drought. She shot a 90 at the District 2-2A Tournament while teammates Payton Gainey and Ashley Nelson carded an 85 and an 89 to lift the Lady Tigers to the championship by 14 strokes over Arnold.

“It was great. It was absolutely awesome. I’m just so proud of my teammates,” Chasteen said.

Chasteen then posted a team-best 82 at the Region 1-2A Tournament but just missed qualifying for state individually. It didn’t look like Columbia would advance as a team either after placing seventh, but Winnett received word a couple of days later that the team had received an at-large berth.

In her final high school season, Chasteen hit another goal of playing in the state tournament. She shot an 86 in Round 1 and then a 93 in Round 2 to finish tied for 48th in Class 2A.

Of course, with her competitive nature, Chasteen believes she could have performed better.

“There’s always room for improvement anywhere you go and anything you do,” Chasteen said. “There’s always room for improvement. I was happy with what I did my first day. But my second day was a little more nerve racking. But like I said, there’s always room for improvement. I’m just glad that I got the opportunity to be able to go there.”

Chasteen’s golf career isn’t over yet though. She recently committed to be a dual-sport athlete at Emory and Henry, where she’ll play golf as well as softball.

Softball has been a passion for Chasteen for awhile, suiting up as Columbia’s starting catcher since her freshman year. Golf didn’t come into the picture until she was a sophomore but it’s a sport that she’s fallen in love with as well.

Turns out she was pretty good at it too.

“My true heart wishes she would give golf 100 percent because I think she has the talent to make it all the way in golf,” Winnett said. “But I have no doubts that she’s going to do great at both sports. But I feel with her talent she could make it all the way with golf.”

ALL-AREA TEAM

Reece Chasteen

Columbia, senior

The LCR’s Girls Golfer of the Year posted a team-best 38.7 nine-hole average for the District 2-2A champion Lady Tigers. Chasteen placed fifth overall at districts and tied for 10th in Region 1-2A before finishing a team-best 48th at the state tournament.

Payton Gainey

Columbia, junior

Led the Lady Tigers to the District 2-2A title with a second-place finish (85). Gainey posted a 39.5 nine-hole average and tied for 18th in Region 1-2A to help Columbia reach the state tournament, where she tied for 66th.

Ashley Nelson

Columbia, senior

Placed fourth (89) in District 2-2A for the champion Lady Tigers and finished the season with a 45.2 nine-hole average. She tied for 36th in Region 1-2A and came in 71st at the state tournament.

Rachel Howell

Suwannee, senior

Placed third in District 2-2A with an 87 and finished with a team-best 44 nine-hole average. She went onto to place 34th in Region 1-2A.

Lindsay Self

Suwannee, junior

Placed sixth in District 2-2A with a 91 and finished the season with a 45 nine-hole average. She went on to tie for 36th in Region 1-2A.

COACH OF THE YEAR

Tammy Winnett 

Columbia

Winnett guided the Lady Tigers to their first district title since 2014. She also kept a group together that was down to only four golfers at the end of the season, coaching them through regionals to reach the state tournament via an at-large berth. Columbia also placed third at the Jill Darr Invitational.