Beavers have a swinging time against Franklin
Tue, 05/02/2006
The Ballard Beaver girl golfers dominated the Franklin Quakers last Thursday at West Seattle Golf Course in a 270 stroke to 344 victory.
Ballard golfers took the top five spots when the final hole was played. Kim Geddes was first with 47 strokes, followed by Kristin Yeasting at 53, Sami Wong at 55, Gina Belcher at 57 and Ellie Shane at 58.
Their record is now 3 and 3 for the season with other wins over Garfield and Juanita.
Franklin had trouble fielding a complete team and many of their golfers are new to the game.
Ballard was happy to play the game on a warm sunny day and come away with a big win, despite their less experienced opposition.
"We look better when we play them. Our girls did well," said Head Coach Stan Geddes, referring to the Quakers.
Most of the top teams are from the Eastside, where students have families who belong to private clubs and access to the course year round.
Ballard has slowly been catching up. The scores against Eastside golfing powers has gone down. Last season Ballard lost to Bothell by 33 points. The Beavers lost to the Cougars by only three strokes this month.
Ballard lost to a strong city rival, Roosevelt by only one stroke.
The Beavers lost to Eastlake 30 strokes. Despite the Eastlake loss, Geddes says his girls are playing well.
Two weeks ago Ballard squared off against Woodinville and lost by only 14 points (262-248).
When the season winds down, each school in KingCo will send six players to the KingCo Medalist Tournament on May 15 and 16.
Regular season matches are nine holes. The Medalist Tournament will feature 18 holes.
"It's pretty competitive and tense. Golf is a game of nerves," said Geddes who says even professional golfers have days when they don't play well.
Half of the 72 girls who make the tournament will be eliminated the first day. Those with the lowest 36 scores will come back to the next day to compete for one of ten positions for the State Tournament on May 23 and 24.
During the last two years, Ballard had one player make the lowest 36.
This year, Stan Geddes is hoping to have two or three girls get past the first round.
Ballard's top seed Kim Geddes is doing well, despite some inconsistent play. "She has four matches to get into shape," said Stan Geddes.
Kim Geddes was first with 43 strokes in the 254-311 win over Juanita. She has had scores of 53, 59, 58 and 50 twice to lead the Beavers.
Yeasting has played well with a second place tie against Juanita. She tied with teammate Wong with 50 strokes. Wong had another good day in the Eastlake match. She was third with 52 strokes.
In the loss to Bothell, Yeasting was third at 49 strokes. The performance impressed her Geddes. Also against Bothell, Geddes was fourth at 50 strokes and Emily Shiels was fifth at 52 strokes.
Stan Geddes says his girls are always happy when they are playing golf. "They are enjoying the season. I'm on them all the time, I like to see improvement," he said.
The Beavers finish the season against tough golf schools like Inglemoore earlier this week. Next comes Lake Washington at the West Seattle Golf Course on Thursday, May 4, Redmond at West Seattle on May 9 and Skyline on May 11 at the Plateau Golf Course.