PINCKNEY — As a sophomore, Katelyn Sanchez wasn’t completely ready to be a leader on the Pinckney golf team.
But her status as the Pirates’ clear No. 1 golfer carried an expectation that her role off the course would increase.
“I had to take on a leadership position,” Sanchez said. “At first, I was uncomfortable with that being an underclassman. But I love my team so much. It was a really, really fun season that went really well.”
Pinckney had two seniors who had the official role as captains. Sanchez deferred to them in many ways, while finding areas in which she could lead.
“It was a very strange experience,” said Sanchez, the Livingston Daily’s Athlete of the Week. “They’re seniors. They’re older. I didn’t want to take anything away from them. I tried to maybe help with the golf swing, but still let them be them.”
Sanchez’s role model as a player and as a leader was Alivia Ligrow, a first-team all-stater as a senior last season.
When Ligrow was a freshman in 2020, Olivia Ohmer was the top senior who modeled what it meant to be a leader. Ligrow credited the way she interacted with her teammates last year to the way she was treated by Ohmer as a ninth-grader.
“She’s honestly who I look up to from Pinckney,” Sanchez said of Ligrow. “She’s just an amazing person. She would drive me to practice every day. She was always just so kind. She always had this composure, even though she was No. 1 and had so much pressure. This year, I tried to mimic that. I just know my team has my back as much as I have theirs.”
On the course, Sanchez is carrying on the lineage of Ligrow and the Ohmer sisters.
After going to the state tournament with her team last year, Sanchez qualified individually by grabbing the final berth from the Division 3 regional in Adrian. She shot 92 to tie for 11th place, advancing by one stroke. The top three golfers not on a qualifying team went to the state tournament.
She had to make par on the final hole while facing a 45-foot uphill putt on a domed green to advance.
“The first nine holes, my coach refused to let me look at the leaderboard, so I had no idea what I needed to do,” Sanchez said. “I wasn’t doing very well the first nine. I needed to figure out what I needed to do to get to states.
“Probably about the 11th hole I looked and I was like, ‘OK, I need to start making some pars, start making some shots,’ and I did. On the last hole, I had a very long birdie putt that could have gone very, very wrong, but I putted to about a foot and made my par. I just started crying, because I knew I needed that par to make it.”
In the Division 3 finals, Sanchez came back with an 84 in the second round after shooting 90 to tie for 21st place at Bedford Valley in Battle Creek.
“It was nerve-racking at first,” Sanchez said. “After the first tee shot, you kind of get into the swing of it. You’re like, ‘Oh, this is just another round of golf. There’s no pressure.’ It was a little different last year as a team and having them. This year, it was a little lonely not having a girl in the same room and visiting every night. It was still a great experience and I’m looking forward to doing it again.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Pinckney golfer Katelyn Sanchez took on leadership role as sophomore
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