By Dylan Wallace
BLOOMINGTON
The fall sports season officially got underway Monday.
Most teams began official practices, but for girls golf, the matches already got rolling.
The Seymour girls golf team was in Bloomington on Monday morning to participate in the Bloomington South Invitational against 19 other teams.
The Owls didn’t have their best day, finishing 18th overall with a team score of 447. But the IHSAA only allows two days of practice before competition begins, so Seymour’s first time practicing as a team was Friday before playing Monday.
“I always think the girls get kind of shorted when they only have two practices before they have to play,” head coach Jim Hoffman said. “Overall, it’s nice to be back to playing again.”
Lainey Jackson led the way for Seymour with a score of 97 through 18 holes. Phoebe Skidmore was second after shooting a 112.
“Phoebe and Lainey didn’t play to their potential, but they’ll be fine,” Hoffman said. “They’re both confident in their ability.”
Liza Stuckwisch was third on the team with a 117, and freshman Katie Cottrill was fourth with a 121. For Cottrill’s first high school competition, Hoffman was pleased with her play.
“Katie came out as a freshman and hit the ball great,” he said.
The Owls have a fifth player on their roster, and that’s freshman Emily Windley. She didn’t play golf in middle school, so she was in attendance Monday but just walked the course, supporting her teammates and getting a feel for the competition.
Hoffman expects Windley to make her high school debut during dual match play next week.
“You can’t look at the scores right now because it’s so early,” Hoffman said. “I like the four we have, and we’ll be adding Emily. I think we’ll be OK.”
The greens at Bloomington Country Club were really fast and gave the whole field trouble on the day.
There were a lot of three- or four-putts going on throughout the day.
“I feel like the greens gave us a hard time today,” Hoffman said. “We didn’t have any time (to prepare). I can’t fault the girls for that. If we took some of the putting away today, we could’ve been under 400.”
Putting will be the main objective for the Owls in practice today.
The greens expect to be much easier to play at Shadowood Golf Course, which is where Seymour will be competing next.
The Owls will host the Seymour Invitational on Wednesday with play beginning at 9 a.m. The champions from the Bloomington South Invitatioanl, Westfield with a score of 295, will be in attendance in addition to a couple of other teams, including Brownstown Central.
“When you play against good teams, you get better, and that’s what we plan to do every day,” Hoffman said. “Short season, so we’re going to get right into it on Wednesday, back at it.”