Kathryn Ha and Jake Albert dueled once more in their final VHSL golf tournament Monday at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg.
There was no better stage than the Class 4 state tournament, and for four years of back-and-forth performances, this last meeting became an instant classic.
The two River Ridge District golfers posted the only sub-par scores of the event and finished one-two in the final standings. Ha, the 2022 champion, reclaimed the title by shooting a 2-under 68, while Albert, the 2021 champion finished runner-up by a single stroke.
“This has been a battle that’s gone on between these two kids for four years,” Blacksburg head coach Rick Mattox said. “And she got the best of him again today.”
Ha, a Salem senior who recently flipped her college commitment from Virginia to Vanderbilt, has already participated in elite level American Junior Golf Association tournaments across the country and the Junior Solheim Cup in Spain, but she said grabbing another state title before she graduates was a priority, especially after following up her 2022 championship performance with a runner-up finish in 2023.
“After last year, I think it just made me realize how much I wanted another title to my name before my high school career was over,” Ha said. “Coming into today, I wasn’t setting myself up to shoot a certain number or post a certain score, so I kind of had to pay as the conditions gave me, but I was very motivated after last year, to say the least.”
Kathryn Ha.
Ha and the rest of the field battled windy conditions in Harrisonburg. After parring and bogeying her first two holes, she acclimated and parred 11 of her next 16, bogeying just once more and tacking on three birdies.
“Probably the warmest temperature was at 9 a.m. because the wind wasn’t blowing. I can’t lie, it took me a little bit to settle in,” she said. “I knew I would have to adapt to the changing conditions, so I think it just played more strategically. I think coming down the stretch the adrenaline took over and I didn’t really feel the weather as much. I just focused on each shot, but it was tough.”
Albert, an Auburn commit, led Blacksburg to its fourth straight state team championship. The Bruins finished with a score of 300, their worst outing of the season, Mattox said, but it was enough to beat runner-up Monacan by 12 strokes.
“The weather conditions this time were extremely formidable,” he said. “The wind was blowing, it was chilly. They had just punched the greens at the golf course, so it made putting difficult. Heritage Oaks has a lot of tall grass bordering the fairways, so if the wind blew your ball off just a little bit, you were hitting out of this tall grass.”
While Albert surprised no one with his performance, it was Cameron Sharp’s late effort that Mattox said sealed the team title. The junior was 8-over through 11 holes before birdying six of his final seven, including a pair of par-5s, and parring another to finish with a 2-over 72 and place fourth.
“The other teams, they didn’t have anybody like our dynamic duo, if you will,” Mattox said. “He totally just got with the program, and it was exciting to watch him.”
Jack Skinner tied for 12th with a 79, while senior Grayden Laird, a transfer from Galax who won the Class 1 individual championship in 2022 and helped lead the Maroon Tide to consecutive team titles, tied for 19th with an 80.
“This group, it was incredible watching them play this year because at one particular match, these kids were all (shooting) low,” Mattox said. “I’m losing four integral members off of this team, so next year we’ve only got two returning starters, so hopefully we can work some magic and continue to succeed. Hopefully it’s not the last of our state title runs.”
Among other performances, Salem competed as a team for the first time since 2021 and finished fourth out of eight teams with a score of 324.
