The view behind the tee box on hole 18 at Bloomington Country Club. Seymour shot a 448 to open its season at the Bloomington South Invite.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Katie Cottrill nearly makes a par putt on her final hole in the Bloomington South Invite Monday at the Bloomington Country Club.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Katie Cottrill gives a fist bump after wrapping up her round in the Bloomington South Invite Monday at the Bloomington Country Club.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Lily Combs-Smith chips onto the green in the Bloomington South Invite Monday at the Bloomington Country Club.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Lily Combs-Smith putts on the her final hole in the Bloomington South Invite Monday at the Bloomington Country Club.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
BLOOMINGTON — The Seymour girls golf season got officially underway on Monday at Bloomington Country Club for the Bloomington South Invitational.
Rain caused the invite to get delayed about an hour and a half, but once it cleared up it turned into a solid day for golf.
For Seymour, the Owls shot a team score of 448. Lainey Jackson led the team with a 93, followed by Liza Stuckwisch at 107, Katie Cottrill 115 and Lily Combs-Smith 133.
Carmel won the invite with a team score of 301.
The Owls had a few players out on Monday, but head coach Jim Hoffman expects to have a full five on Wednesday for the Seymour Invitational at Shadowood Golf Course.
Jackson and Stuckwisch going 1-2 for Seymour is par for the course. Both are seniors and expect to lead the team all year.
For Combs-Smith, this was her first high school golf match. Cottrill knew what that was like last year when she had her Seymour debut at this same event.
Now after a full year, Cottrill feels she has improved.
“Definitely better than last year. I shot 7 better than I did last year, so that’s a plus,” she said. “It was also nice playing in a twosome than a threesome. It went a lot faster, way faster than it was last year. I just felt better overall because I’ve grown as a golfer overall.”
On the last hole, Cottrill almost drained a lengthy par putt but it stopped right in front of the hole. She tapped it in for bogey and was all smiles closing out her first 18 of the season.
“I definitely feel much better like comfort wise,” Cottrill said. “Coming to new courses and just playing. Last year, a new course was scary but now it’s not because I can just come up and I can read the course really easily and just hit it.”
Her favorite club is her driver, and she struck the ball well off the tees.
“I love my driver,” she said. “I hit it pretty well, so I think that was definitely my best club today.”
The IHSAA requires each girl in golf to have two practices in order to be eligible to play. Since the season starts the first week of August, each team doesn’t get a whole lot of practice time. Seymour held its two practices last week before getting the season started on Monday.
And the matches come in a hurry as well. The Seymour Invite will begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday with a shotgun start. The Owls’ first 9-hole match will be next Monday at New Albany.