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The Columbus Lady Cardinals hit the road on Monday, April 28, and Tuesday, April 29, to compete in the UIL State Golf Tournament at the Jimmy Clay Golf Course in Austin.
After the two-day tournament the Lady Cards tallied up their strokes and found themselves in 8th place with a total of 772 strokes.
Coming in 8th place out of 12 teams might not seem like it is a huge accomplishment. According to Lady Cards head golf coach Andy Jacobs though it is a very big accomplishment in the eyes of the team.
“Some will look at it as finishing 8th out of twelve teams. If they will look at the big picture: of all the teams that tee it up across the state in 3A competition- we are # 8,” Jacobs said. “That to me is a tremendous accomplishment by these girls. They put in hours of practice, and it paid off nicely for them.”
At the Jimmy Clay Golf Course there are two course that are playable, Jimmy Clay and Roy Kizer. At the State Tournament the Lady Cards played the Jimmy Clay course both days, the course presented several water and sand traps and various other challenges like a few hills and some tough to read greens.
On top of that the wind was blowing with guests of over 20 MPH so needless to say the Lady Cards were battling adversity from the opening tee shot. This course is designed to challenge golfers and Jacobs said he was very pleased with how his team handled the adversity.
“It can be a difficult course, especially when the wind was blowing 20-plus MPH all day both days. The girls handled the conditions fairly well. There are always those holes and or shots that you wish you could have back, but for the most part of each round we were playing a well-managed game,” Jacobs said. “The girls planned their strategies for each shot. Unfortunately, when it didn’t go quite according to plan; we had some big numbers on a couple holes. Overall, though, I was very pleased with their attempts at course management.”
As for the individual scores for the Lady Cards at the end of the first day they were led by Thea Schobel who had 88 strokes, next was Katharine Burnett who had 96 strokes, Madison McRee had 97 strokes, Mady Garcia had 101 strokes and Sydnie Shepard had 108 strokes.
At the end of the second day Schobel again led the Lady Cards with 88 strokes, Burnett again had 96 strokes, Garcia and Shepard both had 103 strokes and McRee had 105 strokes.
Jacobs said the team will not change too much as they are only losing one senior and the players who are set to return next year have made major improvements this past season and will come back even stronger next year.
“We just lose one senior, Sydnie Shepard, who was a very important part of our success this year. The improvements made by Katharine Burnett, Thea Schobel, Mady Garcia, and Madison McRee are very encouraging,” Jacobs said. “I would look for them to be in a similar position this time next year. Hopefully they will really work to refine their skills over the next 12 months, and they will be even stronger as a team. I have no doubt that they will work to improve now that they have seen glimpses of what they are capable of.”
Congratulations to the Columbus Lady Cards on a great season and finishing 8th in Class 3A for Golf.
