So when the Shell Lake standout didn’t get off to the greatest of starts -- going four over through the first six holes -- it was just a matter of refocussing and resetting, getting back to what had worked so well the previous two days.
Two birdies to close out the front nine with a 37 did just that, and a couple of hours later she’d close out the event with a 75 for a three-over 216 total, good enough for an eight-shot win at the event.
“It’s pretty awesome, actually,” Fry said after being asked what it was like to win a third provincial title. “This was my goal going into this year, I was going for the (women’s amateur), too, but I kind of had some trouble with my irons that week and right after I was kind of kicking myself a bit. So I went to the range every day after and worked on that and got ready for this week and it worked out well.”
And then some.
Fry, 16, took a 10-shot lead into the final round, after carding 71 on Tuesday and following with a 70 on Wednesday, the only women’s round under par for the tournament.
Even with such a massive edge over the field, Fry wasn’t about to take it easy in the final round. But golf being golf, sometimes the shots drop, sometimes they don’t, and what you do to recover can make the difference.
“I wasn’t trying to think about it, I was trying to extend my lead instead of just holding it and it was just focusing on one shot at a time,” she said.
Fry is the first woman to win the junior title three times since Prince Albert’s Brooke Hobson won the event in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Matching that mark was a major goal for Fry, and for an interesting reason: not only is Hobson an elite golfer, she’s also in her fourth season with the NCAA’s Northeastern University women’s hockey team, and previously played for the Prince Albert Northern Bears U18 AAA team.
Which, as it turns out, is where Fry will be playing this season.
“She won her third title here at this same course, too,” Fry said. “I’ve looked up to her for a very long time so to be able to do that was pretty awesome.”
Saskatoon’s Sarah Grieve finished second at plus-11.
Fry also won the U17 title by 14 shots over Yorkton’s Ella Kozak.
Kyle’s Chloe Willis won the U15 championship with a 275 total, while Regina’s Tayla Perry was the U13 girls champion with a 284 total.
