Lauren Giambastiani, Northwest Whitfield’s stellar golf star who finished second in the 2009 Class 4A state tournament while leading the Lady Bruins to the team title at Dalton Golf and Country Club, had one bit of business to take care of before heading to next week’s Georgia Women’s Amateur.

On Friday, she signed a golf scholarship with the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. Giambastiani took a slight detour to West Georgia after reaching a decision to attend the University of Georgia and “just be a student and get through school.”

What caused the changed of heart?

“I realized just how much I wanted to keep playing golf,” Giambastiani said. “I realized how important it was to me. And it helped that the West Georgia coach (Michael Horn) was so persistent. He kept telling me he really wanted me on his golf team.”

Giambastiani said while preparing for this year’s Region 7-4A tournament at Indian Trace Golf Course in Chatsworth that it was going to be difficult to give up competitive golf to pursue her education at Georgia. About the same time, Giambastiani picked up her game and was playing extremely well as the region tourney approached.

“When I started playing a lot better, I felt myself wanting to play in college,” she said. “That passion for the game kicked into overdrive. I knew I just couldn’t go to school and not play golf. I decided I didn’t want to miss out and regret not playing.”

Giambastiani — save one horrific hole — turned in a a solid 5-over 77 to win low medalist honors and lead the Lady Bruins to the region championship. Giambastiani edged Hiram’s Kelsey McEntyre by three shots for the individual title, overcoming a quadruple bogey 8 on the par 4, 335-yard 13th hole.

“I think a turning point for Lauren this year was that 13th hole at Indian Trace,” Northwest girls golf coach Steve Summers said. “She bounced back from that and still won low medalist honors. She was proud of herself for finishing well after she made some mistakes on that one hole.

“On the next hole, I told her to forget about No. 13 and move on. She said, ‘Coach, I’m fine.’ She has really matured with the mental part of her game from last year to this year.”

Her region title also buoyed Giambast-iani’s confidence for the state tournament.

She shot a 2-over 74 to lead the Lady Bruins to a 14-shot victory in the state tourney. Giambastiani finished second to North Clayton’s Mariah Stackhouse, who posted an even-par 72 for low medalist honors.

Now, Giambastiani will take her passion for golf to Carrollton and play for the Lady Wolves.

“She’s got a lot of potential,” Summers said of Giambastiani. “She’s carried our team for two years. I think Turner (Fordham) scored lower than Lauren once and maybe Casey (Truelove) did it once. We’ve counted Lauren’s scores in every tournament and every round we’ve played the last two years. I’m proud of her and happy that she’s getting this chance at West Georgia.”

West Georgia recently finished fourth at the Gulf South Conference Women’s Championship in Hot Springs, Ark. West Georgia sophomore Michelle Meher, of Minesing, Ontario, finished third in the GSC tourney.

The Lady Wolves’ seven-player 2008-09 roster was made up of two freshmen and four sophomores. And Horn, a retired Navy intelligence specialist who coached Northwest Whitfield to the Georgia High School Association state golf tournament in 2002 where the Lady Bruins finished eighth, believes Giambastiani will help the Lady Wolves in 2009-10. The Lady Bruins finished eighth.