New year, new teams. The girls golf team is up for another new season, meaning new teammates and even a new coach! So far, the girls golf team has gone up against Hargitay, Brantley, Lake Howell, and many more to come.
Varsity member, Madison Ehmke, shares her experience as a returning member: “This is my second year on this team since I am a sophomore. I have been playing gold for around five years but competitive for 3 years. I have a membership at a golf course and try to practice four to six days a week. I practice all areas of my game which is putting, short game, and full swing in hope that I am prepared for my tournament of match that week. For team practices, we try to get as many of us to practice so we are able to engage with each other and help each other on our game. Playing as a team is nice because golf is really hard mentally and when i’m playing it as a solo sport I get upset when I don’t do my best. But as a team sport, it’s not just based on your performance, it’s based on everyone on the team, so not all the pressure is on one person. Everyone has to do their part and play their best.”
Since golf is usually a solo sport and not a team sport, it’s interesting how schools are able to turn it into a team activity. On each team, there are six players in the game and each golfer is partnered up with someone who is close in rank to them. So if you are rank five, then you would be partnered with a rank six, and so on. This is the same with how it works on the other team, so in total, there are three duos on each team. Then once everyone is partnered up, they would choose a teammate on the opposite team whose score you want to keep track of. This is to prevent cheating and saying you made the hole in two when it actually took five hits. At the end, the four people from each time with the lowest score get their score added up for their team, and whichever team has the lowest score is who wins.
New team member, Marilu Cook, talks about how the start of the season is going so far: “I played volleyball in the past, but because I suffered from an injury, I decided to try out a different sport. Since my dad likes golf and I had played it in the fifth grade, I thought I might as well try. The team started at the end of August, and so far we’ve had some practices and a few games. Since this is my first year on the team, I’ve gotten to meet new girls and so far I’ve bonded really well since all the girls are super nice. Since most of them are also sophomores, I have classes with some of them and bond that way. I also occasionally drove to school with a senior, which made us closer. Golf is a very strategic sport, and is harder than it seems. I started playing again over the summer, so I’m very new. The goal of golf is to get the least amount of points, which is almost the one sport where that is the goal.”
Although the team has already started, there is always next year and allows you to start preparing even now! Good luck to future and current members on the team!