Lady Raiders Golf Team Has Another Rough Tournament
In a scramble or any tournament, it is essential for a team to work together and help each other play the best they can. Photo by Deborah Wood.
March 28, 2019
The North Forsyth girls golf team had a tournament on Saturday, March 16 at Summit Chase Country Golf Course. The tournament did not start until the early afternoon because the golf course wanted their members to go first before the high schoolers. There were a total of ten high school teams, including teams from Commerce, Gainesville and a few others at the tournament.
The team competed in a four-man scramble, in which four players from the girls golf team worked together to shoot a low score by choosing the best shot out of all the players. Juniors Annie Carpenter, Kinsey Chapman, Grace Wood and Grace Edwards took part in this tournament.
In the beginning, they had a rough start to the game. The golfers had trouble keeping up with the pace of play, spending too much time on the greens and setting up the next shots. Tournaments are time sensitive as with any sport, and if a team plays too slowly, it affects the other teams’ pace of play and how well they play. A team can get disqualified after three warnings, meaning the team will automatically lose in a tournament; however, the Lady Raiders were able to turn their whole game around for the better after nine grueling holes.
A couple of the players started to hit some pretty solid shots, which encouraged the others to play better. One player in particular, Grace Edwards, definitely stepped up for the team during this tournament. Edwards is new to the game of golf, having only learned golf last season; nonetheless, she has proven herself as a potentially excellent player. On hole 13, she hit a beautiful chip shot that made it in the hole, scoring a birdie for the Lady Raiders. In addition, she made some pretty amazing shots when her teammates needed it the most.
Another player worth mentioning is Annie Carpenter, the team’s captain, who did a wonderful job at keeping up the team’s spirits. Coach Loveless believed she could have broken a hundred if she had played by herself.
Overall, the Lady Raiders finished seventh place among ten teams, which is actually not too bad considering most tournaments have more than just ten teams competing. If they were able to turn their game around in the middle of the game, they have the potential to do really well in future tournaments.
Despite the team not doing well in tournaments, they have done quite well in the matches. Currently, their winning and losing score is 3-0 in matches, which means that they have not lost a single match thus far.
See the word bank below that explains golf terms/rules
| score | Unlike most sports, golfers want to have the lowest score possible, which is obtained by taking the least amount of shots into the holes. In a tournament or match, whichever team can shoot the lowest score wins the game. |
| par | This is the number of strokes a golfer should take to get into the hole. The length of the hole will determine whether or not it is a three, four or five par. The shorter holes are typically 3-pars, and the longer holes are typically 5-pars. |
| birdie | This is when a golfer takes one shot lower than the par. For example, if a golfer shot four on a par five, this would be considered a birdie. |
| eagle | This is when a golfer shoots two under the par |
| bogey | When a golfer shoots over the par, this is considered a bogey; in golf, you want to shoot either par or below par. A bogey would be if a player hit five strokes on a par four.
Bogey=one over par Double Bogey=two over par Triple Bogey=three over par Double par=when a player shoots double the par number; usually in a tournament a player has to pick up their ball after this point |
| scramble | Golfers in teams of two or four use the best shot out of the four players. |
| matches | A match is between two high school golf teams, typically ones in the same district. It is usually only nine holes rather than 18 holes. |
| tournament | A tournament is between many high school teams countywide and statewide, and players must complete 18 holes. |
