Feature Photo By: Izzy Honey – A student walks up to the school with her set of clubs. The Rangeview Golf team practices at Spring hill golf course, but moves into the Red Room and Rangeview when the weather is bad.
With the first girl’s golf tournament already completed and having placed second, the many members of the Rangeview team say they are driving forward in excitement for the rest of the season.
Despite the storm that came rolling in last Thursday during the tournament, many golfers on the team made it onto the second set of nine holes — which requires the girls to get a score of 56 at most — on the first nine holes.
Regarding the first competition, freshman Amari Bullock commented, “I did pretty well; I was one of the lowest scorers on the team which is good. I feel like I could’ve done better with my swinging and putting but otherwise I did pretty good for my first tournament of the season.”
Last year, Rangeview sent two golfers to the regional tournament, but didn’t get through to the state tournament. This year, many of the golfers have high hopes to perform well throughout the season.
Going into his third year coaching, coach Anderson is especially excited to see the many new faces on the golf team this year.
“[The team is] so young this year,” Anderson explained. “I’ve got ten players — I had five last year — so I’ve got a lot of teaching to do… We’re pretty excited; probably about five out of that ten are freshman. I’m excited about what’s coming in the future for Rangeview.”
One of Anderson’s main goals in coaching the girl’s golf team is to introduce a passion for the sport. According to Anderson, golf is a game that can be enjoyed through all stages of life, unlike many sports that athletes stop playing after high school.
“I plan on playing until I can’t pick up a club anymore, so hopefully I can instill that in them — that passion for the game,” said Anderson.
In practice, the girls have been focusing on learning swing mechanics, club selections, course management, and especially the ethics of the game.
The sport of golf relies heavily on an honor system: it’s up to the individual golfers to keep track of the number of strokes they take. With no officials in the sport, it can be very easy to cheat. Anderson has been trying to teach the girls the integrity part of the game in order to prepare them for the rest of the season.
Sophomore Kaylee Hall is new to the sport of golf this year. She said, “When we [practice], we are looking at how far our balls go. With each club that we have, we learn how to hit them in a specific way to get them up and out.”
There are five different categories of golf clubs: the woods, the irons, the hybrids, the wedges, and the putters. In each category, there are several different size clubs for different desired results. For a beginner, it may seem like a daunting task to get to know each of the clubs and when to use them. With the new golfers on the team, many agree that excitement is high and desire is strong.
The next golf tournament of the girls season is tomorrow, April 10th. The tournament will take place at Gold Crown golf course at 9 am.