Access to live scoring doesn’t trip up girls’ golf’s back-to-back champs
High school girls’ golf has teed off this season with a new twist and a familiar theme.
What’s new? Live, online hole-by-hole scoring entered by some of the players themselves during the event.
Then there’s the familiar: Back-to-back defending girls’ state team champion Lexington Christian? They’re still really good despite graduating four players off last year’s squad.
Christy Ann “C.A.” Carter, an LCA freshman, fired a 3-under par 70 Saturday to win the Lady Bulldogs Classic hosted by Paul Laurence Dunbar at Kearney Hill Golf Links. It was her first individual win as a high school varsity player, and it helped the Lady Eagles capture the team title for the event, as well.
“It is unbelievable. I’m still just in shock,” Carter said after the round. “I can’t believe I was able to play this good today coming after a few tournaments this week. I was a little tired today, but I was able to finish strong and keep the momentum going.”
Carter edged Marshall County’s Savannah Howell by one stroke. Marshall’s Megan Hertter at 1-under was the only other player in red figures over the 5,621-yard course.
The field contained a number of top individuals and teams who will likely contend for spots in the state championships this season. Marshall County nearly won Saturday despite the late withdrawal of seventh-grade standout Trinity Beth.
Carter began climbing up the leaderboard on the back nine, turning a 1-over par front nine into her winning tally thanks to birdies on the par-3 12th and 15th holes and the par-5 13th and 18th.
Hole No. 13 at Kearney normally plays as a long par 4, but at 435 yards for this event, it was set up as a par 5 and Carter and teammate Mary Keene Marrs both took advantage with birdies. Marrs, a junior, and seventh-grader Carter Lankford each shot even-par 73 to go with sophomore Maryssa Phillips’ 79 for a team total of 3-over 295 — four shots better than second-place Marshall County.
“They’re very mature, even though they’re young,” first-year LCA coach Ford Lankford said of his team. “We’ve learned sometimes when they’re not totally in love with the way they’ve performed, maybe they’ve been a little too hard on themselves. So, we’ve talked about trying to find a way to have positive thoughts all the time. And maybe today that helped us lower our scores a little bit.”
A new potential distraction this year comes in the form of live scoring, an advancement that has taken root in the game over the last couple of years and come this season to high school golf as another way to cut down on physical interaction amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, instead of dozens or even hundreds or players and spectators gathering around a tote board as players finish, players have a phone app that one or more of them uses per grouping to post their scores at the end of each hole in addition to keeping their physical scorecards.
“You just enter the scores in it and it goes up. And it’s pretty neat,” said Kearney Hill golf pro Chris Boysel, who still did the final tallies with all the golfers from their paper cards as they came in. Now, players don’t have to swap cards to double-check everything. “I can even tell you what the average score on hole six was today with the push of button.”
Carter and her coach each said they try not to keep up with scores online, preferring to focus on the course in front of them. Lankford and other coaches acknowledged that the old, informal check-with-parent text system remains pretty efficient and even better than live scoring if players forget to post in a timely fashion.
“I don’t have to ask (parents), but it seems every time I check (online), it’s not maybe updating as quickly as it’s supposed to,” Lankford said (so, he still checks with parents). “It is handy to have, and for grandparents or parents who aren’t able to make the event to be able to follow it online — it’s awesome.”
Madison Central Coach Tennye Ohr, whose team took fourth behind Sacred Heart, said live scoring hasn’t changed anything for her team.
“I don’t really watch it,” she said. “It’s just the way of the future. And it’s OK.”
And Ohr doesn’t worry that near-instantaneous access to scores will adversely affect her players.
“One or two of my girls will watch it. Others will just leave it alone,” she said. “I would prefer for them not to have it, but it’s the same thing as them adding their score up at the end of nine holes and going, ‘Oh my goodness! I’ve got to shoot X, Y, Z.’ It does put a little fire into some girls. Others, it could add a little angst, too. They’re going to find out in some other form — they’re going to ask their parents or somebody. As long as they can learn to manage it (it’s fine).”
Dunbar Lady Bulldogs Classic
Top 10 individuals: 1. Christy Ann “C.A.” Carter, Lexington Christian Academy, 70; 2. Savannah Howell, Marshall County, 71; 3. Megan Hertter, Marshall County, 72; T4. Carter Lankford, LCA, 73; T4. Abigail Sutherland, Sacred Heart, 73; T4. Grace Walker, Christian Academy-Louisville, 73; T4. Claira Beth Ramsey, Madison Central, 73; T4. Mary Keene Marrs, LCA, 73; T4. Casey Powell, Paul Laurence Dunbar, 73; 10. Kate Hanni, Ashland Blazer, 74.
Top 10 teams: 1. Lexington Christian Academy, 295; 2. Marshall County, 299; 3. Sacred Heart, 306; 4. Madison Central Red, 323; 5. Paul Laurence Dunbar Red, 333; 6. Henry Clay, 337; 7. Lexington Catholic, 338; 8. Bryan Station, 350; 9. North Hardin, 353; 10. Franklin County, 361.
