Kate Gallagher stalked around Fairview Golf Course last Thursday muttering to herself and occasionally glancing up at the sky for answers.

The Central Invitational won’t mark the highlight of the Savannah junior’s season.

Yes, she won the tournament — by two strokes — but a 9-over 82 doesn’t suffice. Not when you’re the defending Class 1 state champion, not when you gave up volleyball to concentrate on the links.

“I’ve never had a round I was completely satisfied with,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher made the decision to step away from volleyball this summer, a choice made with a lot of forethought.

For the past two years, Gallagher competed in four sports at Savannah, while maintaining straight As in the classroom. Coupled with a summer full of AAU basketball and competitive golf, she needed a change — especially in the fall.

Most days consisted of either back-to-back practices, back-to-back games or practice-to-game situations.

“She’d come running in and be changing clothes running across the floor. It was a hassle for her to juggle both,” Savannah volleyball coach Deb Couldry said. “She’s so driven. She can’t not do well in anything. She doesn’t do anything halfway.”

Couldry knew volleyball would be the first to go.

Gallagher calls basketball and golf her No. 1 sports, and she definitively will play both the rest of her high school career. The ultimate goal is to play Division I in a sport, which more and more looks like golf.

“My height’s not helping me with basketball,” the 5-foot-2 Gallagher said. “I need to pick one, but right now, I can’t.”

That left volleyball and soccer as expendable sports.

Eventually, Gallagher might quit playing both to further her concentration on golf, but volleyball went first because it conflicted with golf season.

“It used to be I was gonna decide between the two when it got to be too much,” Gallagher said. “Last year, it worked out fine, but this year, I wanted to start focusing more.

So I decided now was the time. I wanted to see how much better it would be if I just played golf.

“So far, it’s not working out, so I’m considering playing (volleyball) next year — if coach will take me back.”

Last week, Gallagher placed second at the Richmond Invitational, marking the first time in two-plus years she failed to win a regular-season golf event at the high school level. The next day came the Central Invitational.

After losing her ball on the par-5 10th and taking double bogey, Gallagher made bogeys on 11, 12 and 13. Her round in danger of completely falling apart, a par on the par-5 14th brought a smile to Gallagher’s face, a birdie at 15 a sarcastic fist pump.

Coming in with an 82, Gallagher didn’t even want to see the scoreboard, even though it would eventually show her as the winner.

“I never considered myself out of it,” she said. “But when I lost my ball on 10, I knew it just wasn’t my day.

“It’s going to turn around. I refuse. I’m done with this bad golf. I’m getting it out of my system — hopefully.”

For now, Gallagher will concentrate on defending her state title. Then it’s off to basketball season.

But will Gallagher continue to play soccer this spring? That decision will wait, as it did last year when she decided to attend tryouts 10 minutes before they began.

Then it’s back to a decision on whether or not to play volleyball her senior year. For her part, Couldry said she would welcome Gallagher back with no hard feelings.

For now, Gallagher enjoys her extra “free time,” even if she feels a bit lazy.

There’s still time to decide to be a four-sport athlete — again.

“I’ve kind of decided not to play (soccer),” Gallagher said. “But we have a shot at districts, so I don’t know.

“Things have been different (without volleyball). I don’t know. We’ll see how the rest of the year goes. We’ll see what I decide next year.”

Assistant sports editor Ross Martin can be reached at rossmartin@npgco.com