Reigning supreme

FAYETTEVILLE -- Unfortu-nately for an eager bunch of new-found challengers, "another level" and "Blair Lamb's level" appear to be two very different things.

Facing what seemed to be a serious threat from nearly a dozen players at Monday's 3-A/2-A/1-A state championship golf tournament, East Henderson's Lamb elected not to get involved in another boring season of that 70s show. Instead, she threw up a sensational first-round 67 at Gates Four Country Club that all but ended the competition before most of the field was even off the course.

The final round of play is today, but the battle for the individual title is already over -- as is any talk that the improved play of some girls may have pulled them even with the Lady Eagle junior a year after she dominated the all-classification tournament with a record nine-shot win.

"That's crazy," West Henderson's Kandy Carland said of Lamb's score. "That's really good playing."

How crazy? Only one player -- Carland -- was within nine shots of Lamb, who put on a clinic of almost flawless play with four birdies and an eagle against just one bogey on her way to sinking 5-under par. She was 4-under through her first four holes, and only a pair of missed birdie putts -- both inside seven feet -- on eight and nine kept Lamb from posting a mind-boggling 29 at the turn.

She settled for a 12-putt 31, and though Lamb evened out on the back nine, the message was sent loud and clear.

"I know that when she puts it together she can have rounds like this," East coach Carl Taylor said. "I'm not surprised. Just pleased."

Lamb's 67 broke the single-round championship record she set last year at Pinehurst No. 6 by a shot, but she still has plenty to aim for today. She says flatly that her goal is "to break my own state record," and a 70 or better today would do just that by giving her a two-day total of 137.

That would also pretty much lock up the team state title thanks to an outstanding performance by Miranda VanArsdale, whose first-round 85 was one of her finest competitive rounds ever and gave East a commanding seven-shot lead over the Williams duo of Jessie and Kristen Vincent.

Both of the Vincents are capable of shooting in the mid-70s, but Lamb whipped playing-partner Jessie by 13 shots, and VanArsdale stayed close enough to Kristen's 79 to keep the Lady Eagles in front.

"It's awesome to be able to shoot that," Lamb said. "When I made those two birdies (on No. 1 and No. 2), I tried not to get too excited. ... I just kind of kept a cool head."

Lamb's round overshadowed outstanding play from Carland. The Lady Falcon senior has improved tremendously over the past year, and her first-round 72 was not only 10 shots better than her first round at last year's state tournament but also five better than anyone else in the field on Monday not named Lamb. Chase sophomore Emily Street, who beat Lamb and Carland by a stroke at the Far West Regional last week with a 74, was third with a 77 on Monday, while Kristen Vincent and Southern Alamance's Kacie Braxton, with 79s, were the only other players to break 80.

"I was kind of shocked," Carland said of the high numbers. "Sixty-seven, 72, 77 and then the rest were high 70s or 80s. I would have thought there would have been some low scores."

Lamb's -- and Carland's -- scores were all the more remarkable considering the poor playing conditions. While the forecast rain held off, the players were constantly surrounded by clouds of swarming gnats as they walked up the fairways, and once they reached the greens they had to deal with some pretty shoddy work by the Gates Four grounds crew.

Inexplicably, the greens were aerated over the weekend, and the problem was compounded because the resulting sand was left clumped rather than raked smooth. The result was puffs of dirt with every landing approach shot followed by unreadable breaks and side-to-side bouncing on putts that made anything over five feet as much luck as anything else.

"The course is actually a good course to be at except for the greens. They don't produce true rolls," Lamb said. "Nobody could putt. The greens were terrible. I don't know why they couldn't wait four more days to aerate."

"I would have done better," Carland added. "You'd putt it, and you never knew where it was going to go. I guess they forgot we were playing."

Nobody will soon forget what Lamb did on Monday. She got the ball bouncing by sticking her approach on No. 1 and making the 10-foot birdie, and she followed that with a 4-foot birdie on the 116-yard par-3 second.

On the par-5 fourth, a 396-yarder, Lamb easily reached the green in two before draining a 15-foot eagle putt. Her final birdie on the front was on the 147-yard seventh, from seven feet away.

Her lone birdie on the back came on the 386-yard par-5 13th, but that was also the beginning of her only rough stretch. A bad chip led to a three-putt bogey on 15, and only a tremendous 150-yard approach shot -- to six feet -- saved par on No. 15 after her drive nearly went out of bounds to the left.

Carland started on No. 10 and was 3-over through eight thanks to three bogeys, but a birdie on No. 18 started a red-hot stretch in which she birdied four of five holes and one-putted six consecutive greens.

"I was just thinking `don't give up,' because I was getting frustrated," Carland, who attributes her improvement to hard work, said. "I couldn't hit a green."

Three other area players were also in the field on Monday. T.C. Roberson's Amanda Clark and Becky Kramer shot 91 and 93, respectively, while Hendersonville's Rebecca Stissel carded a 124 playing as an individual.

Lamb tees off at 8 a.m. today on No. 10, while Carland goes off at 9:30 on No. 1.