All First Coast girls golf: Fernandina's Sady Campbell surprised even herself with state title

All First Coast girls golf: Fernandina’s Sady Campbell surprised even herself with state title

Posted by Admin January 10, 2025 Golf

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Campbell became first-ever Nassau County high school golfer to win a state championship

Sadaly Grace “Sady” Campbell is a poster child for golf’s junior development programs.

The Fernandina Beach High senior got the golf bug at 8 when a commercial for Augusta National’s Drive, Chip and Putt competition came on while watching an Alabama football game with her father Rob.

“That looked like fun,” she said.

She entered the next DC&P local qualifier and took pride in one thing.

“I didn’t finish last,” she said. “Next to last.”

Campbell then took lessons at the First Tee’s affiliate program at the Amelia River Golf Club, which remains her home course and where she continues to work with swing coach Ed Bowe.

“I love the First Tee … a great organization,” she said. “I played a couple of tournaments after that and I was hooked.”

Campbell and her sister Madelyn then joined a PGA Junior League team at Amelia River, where juniors play a scramble format and have uniforms complete with numbers and their names on the back.

In the case of Campbell’s team, the players used nicknames.

Sady Campbell was “Laces,” because she had a habit of playing with her shoelaces untied.

All those paths led to playing for veteran coach Christina Steffen at Fernandina, where Campbell and her sister became two of the mainstays for a team consistently among the contenders for district and regional titles.

And that led to Campell’s crowning achievement in golf to this point: the Class 2A state championship, beating Dariana Breto of SLAM Academy with a par on the first playoff hole at the Mission Inn Resort Las Colinas Course in Howey-in-the-Hills.

Campbell is the first individual state golf champion in Nassau County history in girls or boys competition and is the first girls state champion since Nicolette Donovan of Ponte Vedra High in 2013. It’s the primary reason why she is the 2024 Florida Times-Union First Coast girls golfer of the year.

“I’m honored to be the first,” she said. “Super-excited, super-blessed.”

Campbell got off to a rough start

Sady Campbell could have been justified if she felt as if the Mission Inn Resort Las Colinas Course had it in for her.

Campell had played the site for FHSAA state girls golf championships all four years of her high school career at Fernandina Beach and she didn’t have her sights set that high for her last turn with the Pirates at Las Colinas.

But in the first round, she got off to a nightmarish start. Campbell bogeyed her third hole, No. 12. She doubled No. 14 after a two-stroke penalty for hitting the wrong ball and after five pars in a row, she made another bogey.

Finally, on her final hole of the first round, Campbell snuck in a birdie and finished 3-over 74. To her surprise, she was in a four-way tie for third that included teammate Elle Resner.

“It was my last time playing at the state championship and I just wanted a good finish,” she said. “I was extremely surprised to be tied for the lead.”

Campbell had a better start the next day. She birdied three holes on the back nine of Las Colinas (she began at No. 10). But she gave it all back, plus one more, with bogeys on four of her first five holes.

Once again, the par-4 ninth hole saved her. Campbell, playing in the final group to finish, hit an iron shot to within 6 feet, made the putt and got another surprise: she was in a playoff with Breto.

“I didn’t have time to breathe,” she said.

She also found something else: Along with her family and teammates, the first fairway lined with players in both the boys’ and girls’ 2A tournaments, who were done with their rounds.

Campbell didn’t flinch. She hit her drive in the fairway and knocked her second shot onto the green, leaving her a 15-foot putt. Breto, in the meantime, hooked her second shot long and left, chipped on and missed a 15-footer for par.

Campbell two-putted and Fernandina Beach and Nassau County had a state champion.

“I was shocked,” she said. “All I remember is being shocked and all my teammates hugging me. It was such a great feeling.”

‘Little Miss Consistent’

Steffen has coached one other Times-Union player of the year, Anika Richards, and she and Madelyn Campbell were both All-First Coast.

The Pirates have had 11 district champions and three regional titles under Steffen, who also coaches the Fernandina Beach boys team.

As any coach would, she is reluctant to compare players. But Steffen said Campbell’s main talent is a textbook, repeating swing that rarely gets her into trouble and a flat-line approach to good shots or bad.

“She’s always been super-consistent,” Campbell said. “If she does have a little hiccough, it doesn’t bother her. She gets right back on. She’s been that way since her freshman year. Little Miss Consistent, a lot of fairways and greens and all of sudden birdies and eagles start popping in.”

Sady Campbell is heading to Florida Southeastern

Bob Campbell, an air traffic controller, has never played golf. He was fine with his daughters’ initial foray into the Drive, Chip and Putt competition because there is no entry fee.

“I told her, ‘okay, you can do this … it’s free,’” said Campbell, a Bishop Kenny graduate. “The joke was on me because then you start buying clubs and clothes and shoes and lessons.”

Sady Campell’s mother Kirsten, is from a Navy family and was born in Virginia Beach, Va. She came to Fernandina Beach in 1993 when her father started the ROTC program at FBHS.

Kirsten Campbell has a background in clinical lab science but has spent most of her time home-schooling her daughters. Madelyn is on target to graduate in three years from Florida Southeastern in Lakeland and Sady, who has a 5.0 GPA, will begin as a freshman there in the fall.

LPGA? Or NFL sideline reporter?

Sady Campbell said she has two big dreams: Playing on the LPGA Tour, and if that doesn’t happen, becoming a football sideline reporter.

“I’ve always enjoyed watching the players get interviewed,” she said. “I love football, watching football.”

But for now it’s all about golf, on the junior and later this year, the college level. And all it took was one commercial of kids playing golf at Augusta National to lure her to the game.

“I love being outside and I love nature,” she said. “I love enjoying God’s creations. I’m also very competitive. That got me hooked.”

All-First Coast girls golf

All-First Coast teams are determined on the basis of post-season tournaments, regular-season events and the state’s iWanamaker rankings. No junior or amateur golf events outside high school competitions are considered.

First team

Sadaly Campbell, Fernandina Beach, senior: Won the Class 2A state title in a playoff and won a district championship. She was the first golfer from Nassau County in girls or boys golf, to win a state title.
Lily Chiang, Stanton, freshman: Runner-up in the district and region tournaments, then tied for seventh in the Class 2A state tournament. Led the Blue Devils to the district title and a runnerup in the region to qualify for the state tournament.
Sahana Chokshi, Episcopal, sophomore: Won the district and regional titles and tied for sixth in the rugged Class 1A state tournament with a 3-under 139. Ranked 11th overall in the state among all classes by iWanaker and the highest among First Coast players.
Stella Moritz, Ponte Vedra, junior: Won a district title and finished seventh in the region. With results of regular-season events, finished as the area’s second highest-ranked player on the iWanamaker index.
Elle Resner, Fernandina Beach, sophomore: Posted three top-five finishes in the post-season and tied for third in the Class 2A state tournament, three shots out of a playoff spot.

Second team