High School Golf – Syndication Server

Matt Kuchar’s son WDs from Florida state tournament for ‘breaking rules’; team DQs without enough players

Jupiter entered the Class 3A state championship as one of the tournament’s favorites.

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. — Jupiter boys golf, ranked No. 2 nationally per iWanamaker, withdrew two of its golfers halfway through playing in the state championship this week, ending any hope for a state title.

Jupiter entered the Class 3A state championship as one of the tournament’s favorites and was in second place after the first day of play.

However, the Warriors started Wednesday’s second round with only three of five golfers on the course at Mission Inn Resort + Club, dashing their chances at a state championship in 2024.

Jupiter golfers Talan Wilkes and Cameron Kuchar, son of nine-time PGA Tour-winning golfer Matt Kuchar, were each absent on the second day of the tournament. Jupiter head coach Bruce Wasserman said “non-course incidents” forced the players’ withdrawals.

“Breaking rules of the state honor code for golf, for non-course stuff, is all I can really say,” Wasserman said.

Florida High School Athletic Association golf administrator Ed Thompson clarified that the two golfers were not disqualified; rather, they were withdrawn by Jupiter.

“WD” is listed next to both Wilkes and Kuchar’s names on the FHSAA scoring sheet.

“We were disqualified as a team because we only had three guys left, but the three guys, it was a great day with what they did,” said Wasserman, who became emotional discussing the circumstances. “From the start of this year, we knew we had the talent. We set out to win a state championship. We get here, we’re in position, and then this happens. It was devastating to them and emotional for all of us.”

After commending the efforts of his remaining players, Wasserman indicated that at full strength, his program might have won it all.

“Reasonably sure, if we would have had our full squad, we would have walked away with the title,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s a learning lesson for all of us. In the end, we had a fantastic season. We won a huge tournament in Orlando, we won districts, we won regionals, and things happen. That’s sports. That’s life. You’re not going to see a team as strong as this team, ever. But decisions, you know?”

Jupiter’s Hampton Beebe shot a 144, tying for the fifth-best individual score to achieve a medallion at tournament’s end.

“We did come a long way this year,” Beebe said. “This place is not easy. I’m proud of how I finished.”

Jupiter’s Hampton Beebe poses for a photo with his medal after shooting a 144 at the state tournament, good for fifth place overall (Nov. 20, 2024).
Brayden Jenard shot a 145, the eight-best mark, while Tristan Wieland wasn’t far behind with a 147, good for tenth place in the tournament.

In the wake of Jupiter’s ineligibility to compete as a group of give golfers, Viera took first place in the state championship, flanked by Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton) and Ponte Vedra.

Jupiter’s Brayden Jenard putts during the Class 3A state championship on Nov. 20, 2024. (Photo: Alexander Peterman/Palm Beach Post)

Dwyer takes sixth place in Class 3A state championship

Wylie Inman shot a 146, including two birdies on the back nine to crack the top 10 with a stellar performance for the Panthers, who finished sixth place overall in the tournament.

William Cui shot a 149 as a freshman. Notably, he shot par on every hole on the second day.

Alex Peterman covers high school sports for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at apeterman@gannett.com.

Charlie Woods opens Florida high school state championship with solid round

Charlie Woods, son of legendary golfer Tiger Woods, wrapped up his first round.

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Florida – Charlie Woods, son of legendary golfer Tiger Woods, wrapped up his first round of the Class 1A Florida high school state championship on Tuesday at Howey-in-the-Hills.

Woods shot a 78, six shots over par, finishing with the 55th-best individual mark at states.

Defending state champion Benjamin golf, composed of Woods and teammates Pavel Tsar, Andrew Tsar, Brooks Colton, and Jake Valentine, ended the first day in a three-way tie for 9th place with Lake Mary Prep and Lake Highland Prep.

Woods made a birdie on the 14th hole, a par 5, while bogeying on holes 7, 8, and 15.

He ran into some trouble on the 5th and 17th holes and ended those with double bogeys.

Entering state play, Woods tied four golfers for sixth place with a 71 at the regional championship. He, along with the other Benjamin golfers, are back at states trying to defend their Class 1A state title, though the first day leaves the Buccaneers with some ground to make up on Wednesday.

Alex Peterman covers high school sports for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at apeterman@gannett.com.

Charlie Woods and his Florida high school golf team open postseason with a narrow victory

The Benjamin School boys golf team got off to a winning start in the 2024 FHSAA postseason this week.

Charlie Woods and the Benjamin School boys golf team got off to a winning start in the 2024 FHSAA postseason this week but it “wasn’t pretty” according to the team.

The Bucs won the District 13-1A championship at the Championship Club at Summerfield in Stuart on Tuesday with a team score of 291, two strokes better than West Palm Beach’s Oxbridge Academy.

“Wasn’t pretty but got the job done at districts,” Benjamin boys golf posted to its official team Instagram after the win. “Onto regionals.”

Woods, the son of legendary golfer Tiger Woods, shot a 1-over 73 to take sixth individually while senior Pavel Tsar, The Post’s reigning boys golfer of the year, placed seventh with a 3-over 75.

Benjamin’s most valuable player was certainly Tsar’s younger brother Andrew, a sophomore who fired 3-under 69 to win the individual district title. Tsar’s round had “many lip-ins” and was “lucky” according to the team’s Instagram account.

Oxbridge Academy enjoyed a phenomenal afternoon in coming up just short of the upset district championship. Sophomores Joey Iaciofano (-2) and Ajax Lanasa (-1) made a run at the individual district title while junior AJ Colonna (E) helped round out the top 5 with three ThunderWolves.

Benjamin, the reigning state championship in Class 1A, and Oxbridge Academy advanced to the Region 4-1A championships next Monday at Miami Shores Golf Club.

District 13-1A Boys

Host: Champions Club at Summerfield (Stuart)

Team result

Benjamin: 291 (+3)
Oxbridge Academy: 293 (+5)
King’s Academy: 307 (+19)
Cardinal Newman: 335 (+47)
Pine School: 354 (+56)

Individual

Andrew Tsar, So., Benjamin: 69 (-3)
Joey Iaciofano, So., Oxbridge Academy: 70 (-2)
Ajax Lanasa, So., Oxbridge Academy: 71 (-1)
Owen Hicks, 8th, King’s Academy: 71 (-1)
AJ Colonna, Jr., Oxbridge Academy: 72 (E)
Charlie Woods, So., Benjamin: 73 (+1)
Pavel Tsar, Sr., Benjamin: 73 (+1)
Brooks Colton, So, Benjamin: 75 (+3)
Cameron Cantine, Jr., King’s Academy: 76 (+4)
Lawson Ford, So., Cardinal Newman: 77 (+5)

Eric J. Wallace is deputy sports editor for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at ejwallace@gannett.com.

Michigan high school freshman Payton Rohrhoff overcoming cerebral palsy to excel in golf

The high school freshman tried playing multiple sports growing up.

HARTLAND, Mich. — From the moment Payton Rohrhoff was born, excelling in athletics was going to be a challenge.

Rohrhoff was born with cerebral palsy, which affects movement and balance, key elements in nearly every sport. Her right foot is impacted by the condition, causing a limp.

The Hartland High School freshman tried playing multiple sports growing up before realizing golf presented her best opportunity for success.

She dabbled in golf most of her life, exposed to the sport through her father. Three years ago, she decided to focus on golf and started playing it competitively.

“Some sports were hard for me,” said Rohrhoff. “I wasn’t one of the best. I thought I would have a good chance at golf. I started doing lessons with coaches. I started doing strength training last year. I just wanted to take golf seriously and make these goals, because one of my main goals is to play D-I college golf.

“I wouldn’t be able to run very fast or jump or anything like that as good as everyone else. I thought golf would be a good fit for me.”

In her first year of high school golf, Rohrhoff was one of the best players in Livingston County and the No. 1 golfer for the Eagles.

She nearly qualified for the state Division I tournament, missing by one stroke in the regional at Forest Akers East in East Lansing. She shot 85 to finish 12th. The top three golfers not on qualifying teams advanced to the state finals.

While golf is a more forgiving sport for Rohrhoff, her condition still makes it more challenging, particularly when driving the ball.

Hartland High School (Michigan) freshman golfer Payton Rohrhoff. (Bill Khan/Livingston Daily via Imagn Images)

“It will be hard for me to balance on my right foot,” she said. “It will be hard for me to get off my right foot on a swing, but I had a lot of coaches who have been able to work around it and make my swing the best I can make it.”

When Hartland coach Ethan Hawker met Rohrhoff two years ago, he talked with her parents about any physical limitations she may have after noticing her limp and scars on the back of her ankle from two surgeries.

“She does not have the same physical abilities the rest of the girls do out there,” Hawker said. “She makes the most of it. She’s an unbelievable kid. She doesn’t let it slow her down one bit. It’s just hard work that’s gotten her to where she is. She definitely can’t swing at the ball as hard as a lot of other girls. That’s not going to slow her down.

“She’s gonna keep working to improve on her distance and focus on her short game and take advantage of what she has. She is a great golfer and will continue to get better.”

At regionals, Kayla Rousseau shot 84 to take the final state-qualifying berth. Rohrhoff played in the same group with Rousseau and had a pretty good idea the trip to states could come down to their individual matchup.

Rohrhoff was 7 over through four holes, trailing Rousseau by four, before making a charge the rest of the round. Rousseau made par on the final two holes to secure the berth.

“I made a comeback to make it one shot,” Rohrhoff said. “She made a lot of putts and got lucky with a lot of shots, so it honestly came down to the last hole.

“My coach came up to me and I asked him, ‘Do I still have a chance?’ He’s like, ‘It’s gonna be a fight, but you still have a chance. We need to make some birdies.’”

Rohrhoff averaged 86.7 for 18 holes with a low round of 81 and 41.0 for nine with a low score of 39. She is one of three freshmen who were among Hartland’s top four players at regionals.

“It’s really cool to see how we have a chance of being really good in the future,” she said.

Watch this Massachusetts high school golfer finish his career off the perfect way — with a hole-in-one

It was Senior Day and parents had surrounded the hole to greet the players as they finished their round.

Standing on the ninth hole at the Marshfield Country Club about to hit his final tee shot as a member of the Marshfield High golf team in Massachusetts, Owen McCall looked at the green and was a little worried. It was Senior Day (Oct. 9) and parents had surrounded the hole to greet the players as they finished their round.

He didn’t need to worry as the tee shot ended up exactly where he wanted.

Right in the cup for a hole-in-one.

“I wanted to make sure I didn’t go long because that’s where everyone was standing,” remembered McCall. “I was rethinking about using my nine iron at the last minute after seeing the person in front of me hit an eight iron, but I went with the nine. When I hit it I thought it might be a little thin and I remember saying ‘Get legs!’

“I couldn’t see the pin from where I was standing, but I heard it hit the green and then there was no noise for a second. Then I heard everyone yelling and screaming from down near the hole. I had kind of a delayed reaction because I couldn’t believe it went in the hole,” said McCall, who then immediately ran down to see for himself what had happened.

“It’s still hard to believe that I hit my first hole-in-one on my final high school shot. It’s a storybook ending.”

Making this even more of an unbelievable finish is there is actual video proof of it. McCall is a member of the Marshfield Student Broadcasting team and they were at the course getting video from the match against Hanover. They happened to be in the right place to catch the dramatic shot.

“It hit about five feet left of the hole and rolled straight in,” said Marshfield head coach Matt Murphy. “It was amazing to see. I saw a kid from Brockton High do it on the same hole about a decade ago.”

McCall is a four-year member of the golf team, the last two on the varsity squad.

“Owen was a great captain for us this year and just a really nice kid,” Murphy said. “He was great at bringing everyone together on the team.”

McCall was an alternate Wednesday as the Marshfield High golf team competed in the Division 1 South Sectional Tournament at Acushnet River Valley. The Rams placed sixth as a team with senior JD Ambrose leading the way with a 78, which was six over par.

“We did OK as a team. It was a windy day on the course so we had to contend with that,” said Murphy. “It’s not an easy course to play by any means.”

Justin Ford had an 82 for the round and fellow junior Gavin McDonough carded an 83. Junior Ben Berian finished with an 86, senior Max Albert had a 95 and junior Will Noyes shot a 97. Xaverian Brothers won the overall team championship.

“We had a great season,” said Murphy as the Rams finished with a match record of 12-4. “I’ll miss the seniors who are leaving the program, but I feel good about the talent we have coming back for next year.”

Email the reporter at dwolcott@wickedlocal.com and you can follow him on Twitter, @DavidWolcott1.

Losing a leg following a sledding accident hasn’t stopped this courageous Ohio high school golf star

“He’s an inspiring person,” Meg Ready said. “He doesn’t quit, and he doesn’t feel sorry for himself.”

Kord Ready was in a hospital gown when he hopped on a tricycle and began to pedal.

“He’s got his left leg up in the air, and he’s pumping away with his right,” his father, Jim Ready, said.

At the time, Kord was 4 years old. Part of his left leg had been amputated after he suffered a broken femur in a sledding accident and complications ensued. None of it could curtail his adventurous spirit, and the memorable tricycle scene during a physical therapy session provided foreshadowing.

“I was like, ‘All right. Life’s going to be all right. We’re moving on,’” Kord’s mother, Meg Ready, said.

Kord, 17, played golf for four seasons at Archbishop Hoban High School with a prosthetic leg — and occasionally without it. He became a three-time letterwinner and graduated in May.

On Friday, Kord received the Courage Award during the Greater Akron-Canton High School Sports Awards show at the Akron Civic Theatre.

“He’s an inspiring person,” Meg Ready said. “He never gives up. He’s a hard worker all the time at everything he does. He doesn’t quit, and he doesn’t feel sorry for himself.”

Hoban coordinator of cocurriculars Matt Monter submitted Kord’s Courage Award nomination. Monter relayed an anecdote the Beacon Journal’s Michael Beaven wrote about in October in which Kord finished a round on one leg during a tournament at Portage Country Club in Akron.

Kord Ready, Courage Award winner and Archbishop Hoban High School graduate, practices at Lake Forest Country Club in Hudson. (Photo: Matthew Brown/Akron Beacon-Journal)

When Kord wears his prosthetic limb, his leg is enclosed in a hard shell, so it can become painful. Kord knew his score would count toward Hoban’s total in the aforementioned outing, so he continued to play. He estimated he can hop on one leg for five minutes before fatigue interferes.

“He has been a player who cares more about the team than individual awards,” Monter wrote in an email nominating Kord for the Courage Award. “He has been a true leader at Hoban and we can’t wait to see what he will accomplish in the future.”

Kord said he plans to study finance at Ohio University. He said he isn’t sure yet whether he’ll participate in golf at the club level, but it’s a possibility.

“He lives life. He encourages people to keep going,” Jim Ready said.

Kord Ready played sports growing up despite a sledding accident and complications leading to part of his left leg being amputated
Kord’s parents are accustomed to him testing the proverbial limits.

Growing up in Hudson, he roughhoused with his brother, Luke, 19, a Hoban graduate who played lacrosse and football in high school before attending the University of Dayton.

As a youngster, Kord played basketball, pushing bigs around for rebounds, and flag football, quarterbacking his team to the league championship. He has dabbled in waterskiing.

“I had to draw the line on the snowboarding,” Meg Ready said. “That’s the only thing I’ve really ever told [him], ‘No, absolutely not.’”

Kord said he started swinging a golf club at age 10 or 11. He has tweaked his technique over the years to account for his prosthetic leg.

He has been persistent with golf despite undergoing roughly five follow-up surgeries over the years. He stands about 6 feet, 2 inches, and as he has grown, bone spurs have developed in his left leg, requiring surgeries.

In other words, Kord has completed several comebacks since he hit a tree in a sledding accident 13 years ago.

“I don’t like sitting still that much,” Kord said. “I’ve got to be moving, got to be doing something, so it definitely sucks when I’ve got to sit on the couch for three weeks or whatnot. It drives me crazy.”

Kord said he can’t recall the first few years of his life when he had both of his legs.

“I just remember getting hot chocolate after the hospital when I got out,” he said.

Courage Award Winner Kord Ready of Hoban meets with Browns running back Nick Chubb at the Greater Akron-Canton High School Sports Awards, Friday, June 21, 2024, at the Akron Civic Theatre.

When Kord was ages 8 to 12, his parents sent him every summer to an overnight camp for amputee children. He met people who could relate to his experiences, including the stares he receives while out in public.

“That was probably the hardest thing to get over, especially when it was a little guy,” Meg Ready said.

Kord Ready, Courage Award winner and Archbishop Hoban High School graduate, hits a drive June 3 at Lake Forest Country Club in Hudson.
A sharp sense of humor has helped. Last year, Kord told Beaven he had lost his leg in a “shark attack” before disclosing the real cause. When Kord hopped on one leg at Portage Country Club, he laughed along with other players. He talks about frequently losing his prosthetic leg at home.

“I’m not a very serious person most of the time,” Kord said. “I’m just kind of having fun.”

There are lessons to be learned from Kord’s attitude and approach. His support system understands them well.

“Do what you can do and love it and enjoy it,” Jim Ready said. “Don’t worry about the things you can’t.”

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This state champion sophomore who made an LPGA cut has forfeited her high school eligibility

She competed in two LPGA Tour events last year, the Dana Open and the Kroger Queen City Classic.

Mia Hammond, a New Albany sophomore and last season’s Ohio Division I girls golf individual state champion, has signed with a sports management company for name, image and likeness representation — a move that forfeits her high school eligibility.

Columbus-based Sterling Sports Management announced the partnership Tuesday morning, and Hammond’s father and coach, Tom, confirmed her decision to The Dispatch. Mia Hammond has not signed any NIL deals but there are “irons in the fire,” Tom Hammond said.

“It’s more about representation and guidance (through the NIL process) than anything else,” Tom Hammond said. “We’ve had a lot of companies reach out to represent Mia and we don’t want to do anything wrong to jeopardize her college eligibility.”

Thirty-three states and Washington, D.C., currently permit NIL for high school athletes, but Ohio is not among them. An Ohio High School Athletic Association referendum to allow NIL, as the state does for college athletes, failed by a 68-32% margin in May 2022 in a vote of member schools.

OHSAA bylaw 4-10-2 states that “an athlete forfeits amateur status, and thus interscholastic athletic eligibility, if any of the following standards of amateurism are violated … (including) entering into an agreement with a sports or marketing agent.”

Mia Hammond gets ready to tee off on the 11th hole during the second round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship at Kenwood Country Club in Madeira, Ohio. (Photo: Liz Dufour/The Enquirer)

Hammond competed in two LPGA Tour events last year, the Dana Open in Sylvania and the Kroger Queen City Classic in Cincinnati. She made the cut in her LPGA debut in Sylvania, tying for 26th place, but fell short in Cincinnati, and participated in the World Junior Girls Championship in October in Ontario.

“We started talking about (leaving high school golf) last summer,” Tom Hammond said. “We didn’t see her popularity taking off this quickly.”

Mia Hammond has led New Albany to district championships each of the past two seasons, extending the team’s streak to six. She shot rounds of 67 and 69 at state last fall for a two-day score of 136 that set the Division I tournament record, and the Eagles tied Rocky River Magnificat for second place behind Dublin Jerome.

Hammond tied for fourth at state as a freshman.

“The high school season takes a toll as far as the time commitment and the number of tournaments they play,” Tom Hammond said. “It’s a lot of time between (amateur) tournaments and high schools, and typically (the high school season) is when she would take a break from tournaments. And it’s not about having nothing left to prove in high school, although she’d have loved to have won a championship with her team.”

Hunter Mahan has happily left PGA Tour life behind to become a golf coach at a tiny Texas high school

Mahan mused that he could be the start of a trend of players enjoying shorter careers.

Starting next year, just call Hunter Mahan, “Coach.”

That’s because the 41-year-old former six-time PGA Tour winner and former U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup player is set to begin coaching the boys’ golf team at Liberty Christian, a private, college preparatory Christian school located in Argyle, Texas.

“I asked randomly about the head coaching golf position because I thought it could be fun and interesting and something completely out of my comfort zone but something I have a lot of knowledge in, and the coach was retiring so I threw my name in the hat,” said Mahan, who is taking over in the spring season. “When you talk about God’s path for you, it just became so clear for my wife and I. We plan on moving (to Argyle) next year from Dallas and for the kids to start attending school there.”

Mahan reached a career-high world ranking of No. 4 on April 1, 2012. That made him the highest-ranked American golfer at the time. But he last won in 2014 at The Barclays, a FedEx Cup Playoff event, and his game went into steep decline. Mahan’s longtime caddie John Wood and swing coach Sean Foley both are reluctant to say why Mahan lost his mojo, but agree that having three kids in diapers and enjoying being a stay-at-home dad factored into it.

Photos: Hunter Mahan through the years

“He had a lot going on besides golf for the first time in his life,” Wood said.

“When he was at the course, he wanted to be at home and when he was home he wanted to be at the course,” Foley said. “He kind of fell out of love with the game if he was in love with it in the first place.”

Despite having one of the best golf swings of his generation, Mahan attempted to make swing changes and they backfired. Mahan’s short game, which was never a strength, became problematic when his trademark fairways-and-greens game no longer was automatic. Mahan stepped away from the PGA Tour after the 2020-21 season – he still has limited status as a past champion – but said it was the right time for him.

“If you don’t love it on Tuesday, you can’t love it on Thursday. It’s just never going to work that way,” he said, noting it was everything before the competition that was a struggle for him. “It was actually a rather easy decision based on that. I have four kids at home and a family and it was clearly my time to do something else. I didn’t want to keep playing just to keep playing because I could.

“I didn’t want my kids on the road with me. I wanted them at home going to school and being with their friends. Uprooting them for my life didn’t feel right to me and it wasn’t right for them. I wasn’t going to ask them to do that. It just didn’t make sense.”

Hunter Mahan, left, and Zach Johnson during the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

He made just two cuts in his final 20 starts on Tour during the 2020-21 season and appeared in the last of his 453 career tournaments in July 2021 at the 3M Open.

With three girls and a boy ranging in age from three years old to 10, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy golfer has been happy handling car-pool duty. He has shown talent as a TV golf commentator, handling analyst duties for the world feed at the Ryder Cup in Rome this year, reprising a role he performed admirably in 2016 and 2021.

“When you listen to him speak, he’s fantastic, right?” Foley said. “The guy didn’t say anything to anyone for years but when Hunter talks it’s very well thought out.”

A larger role in TV will have to wait, at least for Mahan’s kids to grow older.

“It’s something I’ve thought about,” Mahan said. “But it requires too much travel that I’m not willing to do right now given the attention that I want to give to my family.”

Mahan mused that he could be the start of a trend of players enjoying shorter careers. Mahan earned more than $30 million in official money and despite never winning a major, he had nothing left to prove.

“When I joined the Tour, Vijay Singh, Kenny Perry and Jay Haas were in their 40s and having their best years. They were on Ryder Cup teams. I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore,” Mahan said. “The money is going up so much and the pipeline of new players coming through is so good, guys are going to be like, well, I’ve made so much money do I really want to grind at 45 and travel all the time? Golf is getting younger. The youth of golf is going to be at the forefront.”

Foley, for one, agrees that careers on the Tour will trend shorter.

“Ludvig Aberg isn’t going to be a unicorn. That’s going to be the norm. Every year there is going to be a kid coming out here and contending almost every week,” Foley said. “Is it going to be like other sports where he’s going to lose his advantage by not having as much time to work on his game once a guy settles down and has kids? There are 34-year-old defensive backs in the league that know everything about offenses, know how to run routes, their wisdom is amazing but they’ve lost too many steps to stay in the league. I think golf can be like that.”

Mahan says he plays occasionally but rarely hits balls and it’s not even a monthly thing he does anymore. None of his kids have the golf bug just yet, but he imagines that coaching a high school golf team will get him to play a bit more. Mahan won’t be the only former standout athlete coaching at Liberty Christian. Former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten is coaching his son on the football team and Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner was named the track and field coach in July.

“They take pride in their athletics and academics and also give the kids a lot of opportunities for a well-rounded education,” Mahan said.

Of the pending move to the tiny suburb of Argyle north of Fort Worth, Mahan said one of his daughters calls it “city-country.” It’s not too far from the Tour’s annual stops in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex but it might as well be a world away from his old life as a tour pro.

“I miss the people I spent so much time with but I don’t miss the grind, day to day. What it takes out there is so all-consuming and I don’t miss that,” he said. “It’s very taxing and I hit my limit and it was just time to go.”

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This Tennessee (now Ole Miss) star was the 2023 USA TODAY HSSA National Girls Golfer of the Year

Linder capped off her high school career in dramatic fashion by winning in a playoff for her fourth consecutive state championship.

There wasn’t much that Sophie Linder didn’t check off her list during a stellar career at Gordonsville High School, which sits about an hour east of Nashville.

Linder capped off her high school dominance in dramatic fashion last October by winning in a playoff for her fourth consecutive state championship.

She became the fourth Tennessee high school girls golfer to win four state titles, joining Baylor’s Brooke Pancake, Greeneville’s Karen Socha and St. Agnes’ Rachel Heck.

For her efforts, Linder was recognized by USA Today as the recipient of the 2022-23 High School Sports Awards Girls Golfer of the Year.

The USA Today High School Sports Awards is the largest high school athletic recognition program in the country with 14 regional award shows and one national awards program. Linder was named the winner from a class of twenty-five nominees picked from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

A native of Carthage, Tennessee, Linder has now joined the Ole Miss golf team, entering the season as the No. 23 overall recruit in the class of 2023, and the No. 1 recruit coming from the state of Tennessee. Among the other honors she was chosen for were the 2021 Middle Tennessee Girls Player of the Year and the 2021 Tennessee Girls Junior Player of the Year.

Along with her successful high school career, Linder’s amateur career is highlighted with prominent wins at events like the 2021 Golf Capital of Tennessee Women’s Open and the 2021 Tennessee Girls’ Junior Championship. She also recently earned a third-place finish at the 2022 Tennessee Women’s Amateur Championship.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvstrD1ppM3/

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Unrelenting heat is forcing some high school golf teams to play morning matches

“I’ve had girls throw up … Every season I have had some kind of heat-related illness strike somebody.”

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PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — It is a solution to a problem that is so obvious that you wonder why no one thought of it before.

If it is physically demanding and perhaps even dangerous for high school girls golfers to play at 3 p.m. in desert temperatures nearing 110 degrees in August and September, why not have the girls play in the morning?

“I really think it is a great idea,” said Rob Hanmer, in his fourth year as girls golf coach at Rancho Mirage High School.

The Rattlers have played two home matches this season starting at 9 a.m. at Mission Hills North, just across Ramon Road from the high school. But the idea of morning matches is growing, with Shadow Hills High School scheduling two matches this season at 8:30 a.m. at Bermuda Dunes Country Club.

With girls golf a fall sport in California high schools, and with the start of school and athletics edging earlier and earlier in August, golf matches played in August afternoons face temperatures well over 100 degrees. CIF-Southern Section rules require players to walk the golf course, and on particularly hot days that can cause serious problems.

“I wish we had been doing it the whole time,” said Shadow Hills head coach Nick Anziano, whose team played a morning match last week against the Rattlers. “Years ago, I brought it up to a handful of coaches, and at the time I was still just trying to learn the ropes. It seems like a no-brainer.

“I’ve had girls throw up. It’s not uncommon, really,” Anziano said. “Every season I have had some kind of heat-related illness strike somebody.”

Damariz Hernandez of Shadow Hills High School tees off on the first tee at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning in a match against Rancho Mirage High School at Mission Hills North golf course. (Photo: Larry Bohannan/Desert Sun)

Courses tough to find in the fall

Like the seemingly obvious answer to other problems, Hanmer’s scheduling of morning matches for his team actually came from another issue: course availability. Hanmer discovered last fall at the Desert Empire League boys golf finals that his girls team wouldn’t have access to Mission Hills Country Club in August or October of this season.

“So I started scrambling. Mission Hills North has been unbelievable for us, but they close at noon (in August),” Hanmer said. “My athletic director was standing there, and I said we’re going to have to play some matches at Mission Hills North in August. Can we play at 9 in the morning?”

In the summer months, most public play at the Gary Player-designed Mission Hills North has teed off by 8:30 a.m., meaning the 9 a.m. slot is perfect for the high school matches.

Both Hanmer and his assistant coach, David Shaw, said there are some academic benefits from the earlier matches as well.

“We had our first match last week and missing the early classes, well, the girls don’t want to miss classes that much,” Shaw said. “Now, instead of always missing the back end (of the day), it’s half and half now. They get to see more of their back-end classes. We will get them back today by fourth period.”

Hanmer said the morning matches might solve some problems for teams, but the fall still presents issues like courses closing for overseeding in September and October. But knowing some matches won’t be played in the heat of the afternoon might improve participation in the sport.

“We are trying to create some enjoyment in the sport and some lifelong golfers,” Hanmer said. “It still comes down to golf course availability. We have to play whenever the golf courses let us play. It just worked out really well with this golf course that 9 a.m. opened up and it worked for us.”

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