CHS Senior Ali O’Brien woke up bright and early on Wed. Oct 6 and drove to Eagle Crest Golf Course in Ypsilanti, Mich. for the Women’s Golf Southeastern Conference Championship. A total of 14 teams from across southeastern Michigan competed in the tournament which began at 9 a.m. This wasn’t just an ordinary tournament for O’Brien though: Oct. 6th, the day of the tournament, also happened to be O’Brien’s 18th birthday.

“It was so fun to play on my birthday,” O’Brien said. “It was better not being in school, to be honest. But also [I was] playing my favorite sport with my favorite girls. It couldn’t have been any better.”

O’Brien, who plays golf at Skyline High School (SHS), and her team started at the top of the leaderboard and were neck and neck with Dexter High School (DHS) throughout the whole 18-hole round. In the end the two teams ended with the same team score of 352. With a tally of the top four scores from the team resulting in a tie, the tournament officials turned to each team’s fifth scorer. O’Briens score of 95 compared to Dexter’s fifth score of 106 resulted in a win for the Eagles.

“I got a personal best for the season of 95 for 18 holes,” O’Brien said. “I could not have played any better for my birthday and my team came in clutch with a championship win. It was just a great day all around.”

The Eagles will play at the Regional tournament on Mon. Oct 9 in hopes of qualifying for the MHSAA State Tournament.