Girls Golf Takes on The Course

     Chloe Rogers stated her greatest strengths in golf are teamwork, the golf community, and patience.  According to Rogers, “A very important strength in golf is patience, without patience, you’re going to realize how hard it is to actually improve your game”.  Something that motivates Rogers in golf is to do better for her coach Lemster.  According to Rogers, “Lemster’s passion is golf, so it makes me happy when he can see my scores go down because he knows that what he is doing is correct and I know that what he is teaching me is working”.  Rogers goals for golf this year are to improve her scores and make more friends on the golf course.  Roger’s favorite professional golfer is Tiger Woods.  Rogers decided to play golf in her sophomore year during the pandemic.  One of Rogers favorite golf brands is Titleist for golf balls.  Rogers defines success in golf as seeing how much you have grown patience-wise.  According to Rogers, “My work ethic in golf revolves a lot around my friends that I have there. I don’t want to disappoint them, so I try to work hard to improve my team”.  One of  Rogers biggest weaknesses in golf is her stamina.  To overcome that weakness she is hoping to get more push carts for the team that will help with their game considering they will not have to carry their clubs around.  Rogers has been golfing at Ridgeview for two full years.  Rogers greatest shot was at Buena Vista and she hit two feet away from the hole on her drive shot.  The toughest team that Rogers has gone against is Tehachapi High School.

Mia Flores stated that three of her greatest strengths in golf are patience, emotional control, and leadership.  According to Flores, “This year we have a lot of new players, a lot of them don’t know how to play, so telling everyone what to do, where to go, how everything works has definitely improved my leadership skills.  Something that motivates Flores is trying to be the absolute best for herself and for her team.  A goal Flores is working towards this year is breaking fifty yards.  Her hope is to get to the high forty’s.  Flores’s favorite professional golfer is Tiger Woods.  Flores’s favorite golf brand is Top Flite.  Flores’s definition of success in golf is, “Being okay with having a bad day because not every day that you play is going to be the same”.  Flores’s work ethic is above mediocre.  One of Flores’s biggest weaknesses is consistency with her hits.  To help overcome that challenge she is trying to improve her form.  Flores’s greatest shot was when she hit at about 200.  The toughest team Flores has gone against is Bakersfield Christian.  Finally, Flores wanted to shout out some of her old coach’s Davis, Dabbs, and Lemster.  According to Flores, “Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am now”.  

     According to the girls’ golf coach, Brett Lemster’s favorite thing about coaching girls’ golf is that his players enjoy having fun.  Lemster has been coaching girls’ golf for two years.  This year Lemster hopes that all of his players improve.  Lemester says,  “We might not be the most talented but everyone’s eager to learn”.  The girls’ golf team this year is 0-0 overall.   In their first tournament of the year, the team took fourth place out of five.  Their lowest score is sixty-three out of nine holes.

     According to Lemster, “Success in golf is beating your previous self, even though we play as a team it’s a very individual sport so it’s not focusing on what everyone else is doing, it’s going out and trying to beat the previous version of yourself”.  Some of the team’s greatest strengths this year are humor, musical taste, and not giving up.  Something important Lemster has learned from coaching girls’ golf is to not take things so seriously.  Lemster states, “Golf is a very difficult and can be a very demoralizing sport so just having kind of a carefree attitude, we know that we are going to hit bad shots, we know that were going to hit good shots and just kind of letting the chips fall just helps for a more positive outlook on our tournament days”.  Team practices for girls’ golf is at its easiest.  

     The farthest hitter this year is Mia Flores.  According to Lemster, Flores is scoring a 58.  The team’s goal is to shoot under 300 this year.  Advice that Lemster has for people wanting to play golf is, “I think if you want to play golf and you’ve never played before you need to be willing to put in the time, it’s very easy to show up to a practice or to a driving range and one day you just hit a hundred bad shots, you have to give it time and be willing to practice in order to improve, you have to come with an open mind and not let one bad day ruin it for you”.  According to Lemster, one of the players who stands out this year is freshman, Jadynn Brito.  Lemster believes she stands out because of her great work ethic and a really good swing for an incoming freshman.  The toughest team that the girls’ have gone against is Bakersfield Christian.