Members of the state-champion Meridian High School varsity golf team were honored Dec. 10 by the Falls Church School Board.
“That’s an impressive achievement — we’re really proud,” School Board Chairman Tate Gould said in reaction to the team’s Virginia High School League Class 3 state crown, achieved during competition on the Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg.
Ginger Beall and Malia Perry had both struggles and good moments during the Girls State Open golf tournament.
The 18-hole Virginia High School League competition was played Monday (Oct. 28) on the par-70 Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg. Beall, a sophomore for the Yorktown Patriots, shot 82 to finish in a four-way tie for 25th. Perry, a senior for the Washington-Liberty Generals, shot 90.
Talk about a full and complete season.
When Malia Perry participates in next week’s Virginia High School League Girls State Open golf tournament, the Washington-Liberty Generals’ senior will have played in every postseason tournament possible this fall — five in total.
In a string of strong postseason performances, the Meridian Mustangs saved their best for last.
With a season-best 18-hole team score of 297, the high-school golfers won their first state championship. It was an unexpected turn of events, given how the season began, but the team ultimately hit its stride and never looked back.
Female competitors will take the spotlight for the remainder of the Virginia High School League’s 2024 golf season.
Thirteen players from Arlington schools are among 70 throughout Northern Virginia that will participate in a state-tournament qualifying event at Twin Lakes Golf Course in Clifton. Then, on Monday, Oct. 28, those who earned berths will play in the VHSL’s Girls State Open, for all enrollment classifications combined, at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg.
Their fifth-place finish wasn’t what they hoped for. Yet the experience of just playing in the state golf tournament for the first time was notable for the Washington-Liberty Generals.
The squad capped its best season in program history with a 324 team score on a chilly and windy day at the Virginia High School League one-day, 18-hole Class 6 state tourney Oct. 15. The event was held on the par-72 Norman course at the Lansdowne Resort in Loudoun County.
Nicholas Rados, a multi-sport athlete and 2024 graduate of Washington-Liberty High School, is being remembered by coaches and teammates for his upbeat personality and commitment to constant improvement.
Rados, 19, died in a fatal crash the morning of Saturday, Oct. 12 along the 2200 block of N. Harrison Street in Arlington’s Tara-Leeway Heights neighborhood. A car being driven northbound by an 18-year-old Arlington resident, in which Rados was a passenger, struck several parked vehicles and overturned, according to Arlington County police.
There was, maybe, a tight smile or two as the Washington-Liberty Generals reluctantly gathered for a team photo.
But there also was a hunger for more.
There were two reasons to celebrate for the Washington-Liberty Generals at the conclusion of the recent Liberty District golf tournament.
The Generals won the high-school competition for the first time, compiling a two-day, 36-hole team score of 304-294–598, winning by nine strokes over the nine-time defending champion Langley Saxons (307-300–607) on the Herndon Centennial Golf Course.
Local golf professional Jay Dufty has been honored with the Professional Golf Association’s (PGA) highest regional distinction.
Dufty, the golf director at the Washington Golf & Country Club in North Arlington, was named PGA Golf Professional of the Year by the Middle Atlantic section of the PGA (MAPGA) last week.
Today is finally tee time at Par Citi Golf on Columbia Pike.
The virtual indoor golf facility at 3102 Columbia Pike is opening today, per a press release. It’s located inside of the old LoanMax building and next to the combination Baskin Robbins/Dunkin’ Donuts.
(Updated at 11:40 a.m.) A new virtual indoor golf facility on Columbia Pike hopes to open by the end of the month.
The independently-owned Par Citi plans to open in the old LoanMax building at 3102 Columbia Pike “within the next few weeks,” managing partner Kristian Hara told ARLnow. That likely means tee time will be in the back end of May.
