Kamiak wins 4A girls golf state title

Published 8:30 pm Wednesday, May 20, 2026

LACEY — Sarah Dyer had no clue what was at stake approaching her fifth stroke on Hole 18, just a few feet away from ending the final round of the 4A Girls State Championship at The Golf Club at Hawks Prairie on Wednesday. The Kamiak junior just wanted to make par.

Dyer went through a few practice putting motions before stepping up to the ball. Routine as any short putt, Dyer sank it to prompt a big cheer from her teammates watching from the edge of the green. Kamiak coach Dan Murnan high-fived Dyer’s father, Jim, standing right behind them. It was a good finish for Dyer, who shot one-over 73.

But it was not until Dyer’s teammate Allie Suh ran up to her as she was walking off the green that she learned the magnitude of the putt: With the par on 18, Dyer secured the state championship for the Knights (160), just one stroke ahead of Kentwood (161). Had she bogeyed, five golfers from each side would have entered a team-wide, one-hole playoff to break the tie and decide the winner. Anything worse, and Kamiak would have placed second.

Dyer was none the wiser, which was intentional.

“I had no clue,” Dyer said. “I don’t like looking at the leaderboard, so yeah, I was just focused on my putt. … I got really excited (when I found out), and I was just happy that our team did so good.”

Dyer’s two-day total of 145 (72-73) tied her for fourth among the individuals, and freshman Noel Chong finished right behind with 146 (74-72) to tie for sixth. Freshman Wonnie Lee placed 29th with a 161 (84-77), and Suh’s 170 (89-81) and senior Ashtyn McClure’s 173 (87-86) rounded out the Knights’ top five.

After entering Wednesday five strokes behind Kentwood, Kamiak cleaned up its mistakes from Day 1 to bring the program its first state title since 2007.

“We didn’t play our best (on) Day 1,” Murnan said. “We’ve been playing so well all year, but we had a good feeling if we came back, played our game, played our golf, that we’d have a good chance. And Kentwood played great. We made the turn at 147, I think, which is four-over par as a team, which is very, very low. And we weren’t that far ahead.

“And then it came down to the last hole. You couldn’t write that script any better.”

The 18th hole challenged the golfers with a giant tree smack in the middle of the fairway, which required even more strategic thinking than usual. During her practice round, Dyer determined that shooting to the right of the tree would be the safest bet for getting an easier shot at the green, and she placed it exactly where she wanted to with her six-iron. About 110 yards away from the green, Dyer used her wedge to put herself on.

She rolled her fourth stroke just away from the hole, narrowly missing out on a birdie but setting up an easy par putt. With Kentwood’s Avery Peterson also shooting par on 18, Dyer didn’t need to be a hero.

“It was a good layup hole,” Dyer said. “I knew that it would be hard to birdie, so I didn’t try to birdie it.”

While Dyer and Chong led the pack, the entire team converted crucial shots to contribute to the win. After all, every stroke counts, especially when you win by just one. Lee birdied Holes 6 and 7 back-to-back. McClure birdied Hole 4 and shot par on three of her final four holes. But one of the bigger shots came from Suh, who chipped in for birdie on Hole 17.

“It was a really tough shot,” Murnan said. “If it doesn’t go in, it’s probably 30 feet past, and she holed it. That was an unbelievable key shot.”

Beyond the individual holes, Lee’s 77 on Wednesday was a personal best, and this was just her first year playing tournament golf. Between her growth throughout the season and Chong’s instant impact, Kamiak’s two freshmen helped take the program to another level this season.

“I learned to take my time more,” Lee said. “And stop thinking about the endgame, and I focused more on the process.”

After shooting par on Hole 1, things got a little dicey for Dyer on Hole 2, when she sent her tee shot into the base of a tree line on the right side of the fairway. However, she managed to recover with her second shot down the middle of the fairway, and she ultimately avoided a bogey on the Par-5.

Meanwhile, Chong started out hot with two birdies on the first three holes, and she closed out the front nine with a long birdie putt after initially overshooting the hole on her approach. The freshman said she felt some pressure on the back nine knowing how close the team scores were, but the finish at nine provided a boost at the turn.

“It definitely gave me a bit more confidence,” said Chong, who estimated to have made it from 25-30 feet away. “And gave me more of a cushion so that I can fall back on. I did have to fall back on it, but it ended off nicely, so I can’t be too mad.”

Kamiak had tied Kentwood at 33-over by the end of Hole 8, but Dyer and Chong each birdied Hole 12 (Par-5) to pull ahead by two. Chong stuck her third shot right next to the hole from the middle of the fairway, and Dyer chipped her approach a bit too far at the top of an incline on the green, but she applied just the right amount of pressure on her fourth shot and let gravity do the rest to sink it.

“I was just really focused on getting two good shots out there, so I could have a nice shot onto the green, and I did that,” Dyer said. “… Overall, I was just really focusing on the putt and making sure I had the right speed and had the right line.”

The Knights were on solid footing, but a bogey from Chong and a double-bogey from Dyer on Hole 14 opened the window for Kentwood to jump back ahead by two strokes. The lead stretched to three after Hole 15, but Dyer’s birdie on Hole 16 (Par-3) played a big role in getting the margin down to one stroke entering the final two.

Peterson bogeyed again for Kentwood on Hole 17, and Dyer executed an accurate putt from the rough to set up a tap-in for par, which left Kamiak ahead by one.

“I think maybe our No. 1 (Dyer) and No. 2 (Chong) started to feel a little bit of pressure,” Murnan said. “I think they kind of knew coming down the stretch. They made a few bogeys coming in, which is not like them at all. Usually they’re really steady, but they rallied. They made two nice pars on 18.”

Kamiak’s title marks a second straight from Wesco for 4A Girls. The defending champion Jackson placed third (630), and junior Chanyoung Park placed second with a one-under 143 (72-71), the highest among area individuals. Issaquah freshman Ira Upadhyay won the individual title by three strokes with a four-under 140 (72-68), breaking a six-way tie at the top entering Day 2 with five birdies on the front nine.

Glacier Peak freshman Natalia Sanchez-Godinez tied for 14th with a two-day total of 152 (80-72) to round out four area golfers in the top 16, who each received medals. Jackson’s Kayla Kim (157 — 76, 81) and Karen Shim (158 — 82, 76) finished 20th and 23rd, respectively.