The spring golf season has started. This year the Girls Golf team consists of 11 players, with a variety ranging from grades 8-12. This year the team is led by freshman Peony Steele. She joined the team two years ago as a 7th grader and this is her first year captaining the team. The freshman has found leading the team, “kind of stressful. I feel like I might be held up to higher expectations just because I am a captain. People expect me to play really well. But in reality, I’m just there to try and build the team.” Steele said.
While Steele grows in her position as leader the team as a whole tackles location issues. Spring weather in Minnesota is unpredictable, it is not unusual to have 70-degree days followed by snow. So far, this has not been the case this season. The team’s greatest challenge continues to be locations for practice after school. Most days practice consists of going to the driving range and working on chipping, putting, and overall form. The practice locations change throughout the season due to the courses still experiencing the “Covid bump.”[An increase in demand due to lockdowns during Covid]. Coach Kritta describes scheduling practices as challenging. “We are kind of at (the) mercy of finding availability for tee times at facilities.” The Highland National Golf Course is open to the public and is the closest course to SPA’s campus. It is home to many Twin Cities high school and college teams. Including both boys and girls teams for Central, Highland Park, CDH, St. Kates, and St. Thomas. SPA’s “home course” for match play, is used for practice frequently. Both the girls’ and boy’s teams continue to be able to play a few matches at Somerset Country Club in Mendota Heights this season. Post Covid, it has become increasingly difficult to schedule match times there with the increase of members wanting to play. Sophomore Laura Kimmel feels the course at Somerset “can definitely be frustrating … but it’s so beautiful and so much fun to play.”
SPA is considering finding a new club to partner with in the future, perhaps one that has a current student or alumni connection. “I’m excited by the opportunity to go someplace else that is excited to partner with us… We’ve got a potential partnership in the pipeline for both the girl’s and boy’s teams,” says Coach Kritta.
Although the courses can be so popular this time of year and it is harder to get practice in on the weekends the coaches still encourage players to get in practice on their own time. The school provides tokens to get golf balls for the range at Highland National. Along with this, many of the players have access to other courses or driving ranges that are closer to home. In spite of the many challenges finding quality practice time, the team enjoys playing with each other and overall building the team camaraderie. Players are always supporting one another even when times get tough and the ball isn’t going where they would like. “I think what’s most important is just to stay patient with people because I think everyone knows it’s not always going to be perfect…If someone hits a shot, they wouldn’t want, you just got to hype them up and let them know ‘you’ll do better on the next one.’” says Steele.
The first varsity match for the Girl’s Golf Team is tomorrow against Visitation at Inverwood Golf Course.
