Hot shots: Owl chosen as county’s top golfer

As the girls golf season began this fall, Paxton DeHaven had some goals in mind.

“Have my scoring average lower and be more consistent in the low 70s,” the Seymour High School junior said. “Win more invitationals and win conference, and of course, I wanted to go to state and also make all-state.”

She lowered her nine-hole average from 38.8 to 37.1, and she won two invitationals and tied for first in the Hoosier Hills Conference. She didn’t make a return trip to state, but she did earn the prestigious all-state honor for the first time.

DeHaven received the team’s most valuable player award for the third straight year, and now she can add The Tribune’s 2012 Athlete of the Year for girls golf to her list of honors.

In the second invitational of the season, DeHaven set the 18-hole school record with a 70 at her home course, Shadowood. She said the highlight of the year was breaking her own nine-hole school record by shooting a 4-under 33 at Shadowood and then turning around and carding a 4-under 31 at St. Anne’s in North Vernon.

“That’s one thing I didn’t think I ever would have done,” DeHaven said. “That was a big accomplishment.”

DeHaven was medalist in three of the Owls’ six nine-hole matches. She also played in nine 18-hole tournaments, and she was medalist at the Terre Haute North and Franklin Central invitationals, and she tied with Madison’s Amanda Detmer for medalist in the HHC Tournament at Covered Bridge Golf Club. In the other six tournaments, she placed in the top five.

“It gives me confidence knowing that I played really well at some,” DeHaven said. “I didn’t play very well the first time I played (at Covered Bridge), and I know it’s a course I can score well on, so it was nice to score well during conference.”

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