Some good golf competition and some not so good golf competition graced the fairways of the Riverbend Golf Course as Mount Rainer took on Kennedy in boys and girls action, with the girls final score close as close can be close, 109-108, Rams, and the boys score more along the lines of the line “not even close,” 110-84, in high school opening Seamount League action Tuesday.
Kelsey Berg, a senior and the No. 1 on the Lady Rams, watched her coach, Lance Hepworth, and Kennedy’s coach Kale Dyer do the final tallying of the girls score. When she saw the number she unsurprisingly put her hands to her mouth in an “Oh, my,” expression.
“That’s the way to start it,” said Hepworth.
The Lancers received medalist honors in the name of a senior named Jaden Johnson with a 44 and she admitted she’s shot a little better on this course at 42. And Berg, who likely was a medalist most matches last year in the Seamount, and was actually a top 15 finalist after the first day at state. She shot a 45 to tie with junior teammate Kelsey O’Keefe.
So the scores were more blah than yah, so to speak, but the effort that Hepworth’s girls put in was worth noting in spite of the feeling of it being not a great scores match.
“We just slid a little farther ahead than they did,” said Hepworth, whose team tied the Lancers for the Seamount title last year in league before losing to their rival in the postseason league tournament.
Just a little farther ahead of a slide for the Rams, maybe pushing each other that much more is all it took. And, in this case, a one-point differential, says that Berg, along with teammates, Shayna Kay and Maylynn Mitchell did their jobs on the greens, on the drives, on the fairways, and even in the bunkers (sand traps).
“For being the first match, when it comes down to one point, that just shows what a team does. Every girl can think of one stroke,” said Hepworth.
Every girl can think of one stroke where she did better than expected?
“Yes,” said Hepworth.
Berg leads this team as she is a senior now but went to state every year of her high school career -- junior, sophomore and freshman.
The only thing that went wrong for Berg on this rainy and sunny at times of golf action was losing to Johnson individually.
“Her and I are good friends, really good friends,” said Berg. “We play in the summertime together (junior golf circuit).”
Johnson enjoyed her first effort of the season, and playing Berg so close was fun.
“We were head-to-head the entire time,” said Johnson.
Lancers coach Kale Dyer effectively caught the mood at the end, excitedly saying the scores as each number golfer (No.1 to No. 6) is compared with the other teams’ correlated number. So Berg went head-to-head with Johnson and Johnson ‘s 44 effort got her 28 points while Berg’s one less 9-hole score tallied her 27.
“After the first two are scored, Lancers by one,” said Dyer, as Hepworth listened, kind of smiled, and, continued adding the very final things up at the end. “Then, it’s Rams by....Then it’s Lancers by three, heading into the last one.”
Rams won!
Well, aside from the dramatics, it was a dramatic state day for Berg last year as she was one of the top 15 golfers (20 or so golfers make the cut to second day at state). Then what happened as No. 13 looked quite nice in placement against the state’s best?
Something unlucky?
Not really, admitted Berg.
“I just needed to have played two balls,” said Berg, whose sister, Sonja, helped the Rams’ basketball team make the playoffs for that school and played on the girls softball team like Mitchell, a sophomore who is a standout shortstop and hitter for the school who helped the Rams’ fastpitch team get to the second day of state in that 3A spring sport ending last May.
Berg meant by what she said-playing two balls-that her ego, perhaps, would not let her just drop a second ball down where a ball went in the rough. Instead, she chose to try to hit the ball out of the rough and it cost her extra strokes.
So, this year could be a banner one for Berg if she can keep everything in perspective.
“Know the rules,” said Berg.
For state, Berg’s goal is what?
“Top five,” she said, a worthy goal as two years ago, for the Rams, with Hepworth coaching, Stephanie Corey took second in the 3A state tournament, and just one back the year before that, too. So, Rams’ girls golf is pretty good at the highest level.
Johnson made it to state, but some off-course things affected her.
“I want to keep improving, not just score-wise, but mentally,” said Johnson. “I let my friends and family and coaches down last year.”
Johnson declined details of what hurt her outside of high school golf at state, but she will be back it sounds like, ready to go this time around.
So, the Rams look like the team to beat now in the Seamount and just playing good golf the rest of the way should nab them another girls title which they have a few of over the years.
“Kennedy is a very strong team, “ said Hepworth. “Well coached.”
The boys side was with a freshman from the Lancers the winner, Alex Glidden, a 38 score. And he was the No. 5 or No. 6 golfer in coach Dyer’s mind on this day.
“Yeah, that was surprising. First match ever (in high school competition)” said Dyer. “Alex shot great.”
The No. 1 Lancers golfer, Jonny Jonson, shot a second best score of 40, with No. 2, Jordan Glidden, a senior like Jonson shooting a 41.
“He (Alex) doesn’t have a lot of experience. I was surprised by his round today,” said Jonson.
Competition for the future?
“You never know,” said Jonson, who said his other best competition in the Seamount was also on his team, Jordan Glidden.
Jonson has similar goals as Berg of the Rams, who she said, too, wants to win league as a team as well as her individual goal of top five.
“Top five individual at state as well as first team all league, and, make state as a team,” said Jonson.
The first four Rams scorers all shot a 45. Anthony Bordner said how much golf he has played this summer.
The first time he picked up on golf club for this summer was about a week ago and a few days. He is on Jerry Cappodanno’s traditionally strong boys soccer team and that is his sport.
“I play soccer,” said Bordner. “But I shot good today I thought for my first match.”
Bordner ended the day with one of the best shots on hole 18, a 30 foot shot that rolled a couple feet beyond the green for an easy putt, giving him the top score. Jonson, who double bogeyed on 17 and also 8, to explain a little why Jonson didn’t win maybe, shot a drive off 18 that he had to call “fore right.” The ball went sideways right off the fairway into the rough. Then Jonson saw his ball and it was not only in the rough, but in a hole. He took out a sand wedge or something similar specialty club and whacked it and it went 40 feet forward and not the direction he wanted. The next shot was just straight across to the green and fairway 40 yards from the cup. That shot was a line-drive and hit the flag pole and bounced off a foot from the cup.
That should not really say much except Jonson persevered and showed the spirit of this sport on that hole, as did Bordner.
Jonson also admitted that the pace was not to his liking out there.
“Everyone was playing slow, taking time to get to their ball,” said Jonson. “I was out of rhythm. It was frustrating at times, but not too bad. And the weather wasn’t helping out (raining at times).”
Kennedy calls Glen Acres home and the Rams are at Riverbend.
“We are thankful to be out there at Glen Acres,” said Dyer. “Over here, three or four teams share this course and they have to separate tee times. Over there, we are the only team with Glen Acres as a home course in high school.”
Foster-Highline
Foster and Highline played to a split as they opened Seamount League action against each other at the Foster Golf Links in Tuwila last Tuesday.
Highline won the boys side of the action by a 74-61 score, but the Foster girls scored a 37-0 win over the Pirates.
Mallory Kent of Foster was the girls medalist with 37 points, after winning the Seamount League’s Most Valuable Player award last year. Kent also won Nisqually League MVP honors her freshman and sophomore years before Foster moved up to the Seamount.
Jonathon Ross, meanwhile, scored 24 points to lead the Foster boys in their losing cause against the Pirates.