Montpelier's Dye named The Bryan Times Girls Golfer of the Year

She played anyway.

Despite the tough summer and slow start to begin the season, Dye recovered for a strong finish and posted a 42.6 nine-hole average and a season low 37 to become The Bryan Times Girls Golfer of The Year.

“She fought through it by doing stuff she wasn’t supposed to be doing,” Matt Dye, her coach and father, said. “You just couldn’t hold her down. She was hungry to get back at it and improve from the previous season.”

Brookelyn’s senior season ended with a district appearance on Montpelier’s golf team, a goal that the team set at the beginning of the season. Brookelyn said that moment was her favorite of the year.

This year, Brookelyn had an 86.1 18-hole average and was an Edgerton Invite medalist. She finished her career as a four-year letter winner and a two-time district qualifier.

But even as Brookelyn put up better and better numbers, she still had to work through the injury that set her back.

“I think that as the season started coming to an end, I did start improving a little bit,” Brookelyn said. “It was just hard to have to go from that injury and having not practiced for half of the summer. When I first came into it, I was expecting lower scores, but with the injury, I knew it would be difficult to obtain those scores.”

Her season began slowly as she recovered from hip surgery, but when she got rolling, her scores only improved. Her season-best 37 through nine holes came in the last dual match of the season.

“I wish we had another two months to the season,” Matt joked. “We had her peaking right there at the beginning of August moving forward. We would’ve been a lot further along with it.”

Brookelyn’s goal is to shoot in the high 70s or low 80s through 18 holes, something she earned more routinely as the season wound down. Despite getting back on the course on July 1, she still as able to cap her career in a big way.

“What she was able to accomplish being off three months, we felt pretty good about that,” Matt said. “I don’t think there’s anyone that works as hard as she does. We’d practice, then she’d go home and hit another 200 golf balls.”

Brookelyn hopes to play college golf, and is looking at a few schools to do so. She also wants to major in nursing. In a perfect world, Brookelyn will go to a college that allows her to excel at both.

Still, she’ll be able to look back at her senior year with pride, one that she overcame major injury to help lead Montpelier to districts.

“I’m proud of being able to overcome the injury over the spring and throughout the summer,” Brookelyn said. “I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to start the season with my team, so I’m proud of that. I’m proud of the accomplishments that I’ve achieved.”