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<\/p>\nFARGO \u2014 Midway through the fall golf season, Zoe Keene switched shafts in her driver. While her teammates call it ugly, Keene\u2019s driving down the stretch was a thing of beauty.<\/p>\n
The North Dakota Class A state girls champion, who won Tuesday in a two-hole playoff over Rose Solberg of Davies, found herself one shot down heading into the 16th hole at Fargo Country Club.<\/p>\n
Ripping driver off the tee on 16, 17, 18 and in the playoff holes 18 and No. 10, the West Fargo Sheyenne senior kept putting herself in position to win. It wasn\u2019t until Solberg\u2019s tee shot on the second playoff hole, No. 10, clipped the top of a tree and left her an uncomfortable distance in an attempt to capture her second individual state title.<\/p>\n
Mustangs head coach Dan Wolf, whose team breezed to the team title as well, said Keene\u2019s teammates give her plenty of ribbing about that driver. \u201cThat\u2019s a pretty good shot for an ugly driver,\u201d they\u2019d say. \u201cBut you know with that little tweak, she feels she can hit the driver whenever she needs to and today, she did,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n
Keene birdied two of the last three holes to finally catch Solberg and erase a four-shot lead after Monday\u2019s first round. Keene closed with a final-round 69 as Solberg, despite five birdies, took double bogeys on two of the par-3s and shot 73.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like my position was so much better than Rose\u2019s,\u201d Keene said. \u201cI would much rather fight back than staying up where she\u2019s at. It\u2019s a different perspective, it was fun doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both seniors are ridiculously long, especially for the 5,034-yard setup. Solberg rips it 270 on average and Keene is right in that ballpark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obvious,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cIsabella Hale from Mandan is a great golfer. She\u2019s young (a sophomore) but she was 50 to 60 yards behind those older girls. These girls hit it so far now they just overpower courses. It\u2019s amazing to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fargo Davies\u2019 Rose Solberg tees off during the North Dakota High School Class A Girls Golf State Tournament on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, at the Fargo Country Club.<\/p>\n
Alyssa Goelzer \/ The Forum<\/p>\n
Hale finished sixth at 151, 10 shots back. Ava Keene of Sheyenne was fifth with 149. Alexis Fabian of Grand Forks Red River and teammate Ella Speidel were third at 148.<\/p>\n
Gusty winds rattled Solberg and Keene down the stretch. On 16, Solberg backed off a short birdie putt four times before missing it and allowing Keene\u2019s birdie to grab a share of the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind was actually moving my golf ball,\u201d Solberg said. \u201cSo honestly, legally, I don’t even know if I can hit it. So I just waited on that one and it kind of got away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a wild series of events on the 17th. Solberg\u2019s punched approach rolled long and she faced a delicate third from behind the green with Keene eyeing a 25-foot eagle putt.<\/p>\n
But Keene\u2019s hat blew off just before she struck her putt, leading to a three-putt par. Solberg, on a similar line, rolled in an 8-foot birdie to reclaim the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was really unfortunate,\u201d Keene said. \u201cI just needed to two-putt for a nice birdie and go to 18 tied up, but no, the hat had to blow off and it wasn\u2019t even where I could walk off of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when her coach stepped in to settle his senior down.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was upset. And I said, \u2018That\u2019s golf. It can go any way,\u2019\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n
With Solberg hitting a 7-wood on No. 18, Keene\u2019s decorative headcover covering her driver came off on the final hole. Her drive finished just 18 paces from the green on the 270-yard hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who are scared to use it, but if you trust it, why not,\u201d said Keene, who said West Fargo girls coach Ben Walker helped fit her with the new driver shaft.<\/p>\n
Solberg knocked her second shot on the final hole to 12 feet and \u2014 as she had done several times during the tournament \u2014 rammed her first putt well beyond the hole. When Keene\u2019s 8-foot birdie found the bottom of the cup, several in the crowd of about 180 fans erupted as the match was tied.<\/p>\n
To her credit, Solberg should win a badge for making the most comeback putts in the tournament. Now with 5 feet between a playoff or a loss, Solberg steadied herself and jarred the putt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis putter that I have right now is kind of heavier, so I think that makes my misses a little further from the hole,\u201d said Solberg, who switched putters this year. \u201cSo that lighter putter might be coming back into the rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solberg had to make another crucial 4-foot par putt on the first playoff hole to extend it. The Minnesota Gophers commit knows this won\u2019t be the last pressure cooker she\u2019ll be in.<\/p>\n
Keene’s drive on the second playoff hole was dead solid perfect, covering the tree on the dogleg 10th which set up a 50-yard approach. After Solberg mishit two approach shots, all Keene had to do was two putt for the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve played with her all year,\u201d Solberg said. \u201cShe’s a great girl, so I’m really happy for her to win this this year. And you know, at the end of the day, I just have to remember that golf is not everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Keene, who has ambitions \u2014 and offers \u2014 to play collegiately, she couldn\u2019t have closed any stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cRose, Zoe, Payton Stocker, Ella Spiedel, they\u2019re like boxers moving in and out against each other and working hard,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cZoe\u2019s been one of them and she wasn\u2019t always mentioned in the same breath with them, so it was really gratifying to see her finally kind of get over the mountain top and actually be able to say, \u2018Hey, I belong here. I\u2019m one of the best in the state.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FARGO \u2014 Midway through the fall golf season, Zoe Keene switched shafts in her driver. While her teammates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[70432,427,113218,99,70434,113219,113217,113220],"class_list":["post-195416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-fargo-sports","tag-golf","tag-rose-solberg-golf","tag-sports","tag-the-forum-sports","tag-who-won-the-2025-north-dakota-girls-class-a-golf-tournament","tag-who-won-the-playoff-at-the-2025-north-dakota-girls-class-a-golf-tournament","tag-zoe-keene-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}