By MIKAYLA CRAMER – FORE! It’s that time of year again. The rolling hills of fresh cut grass, sandpits, peaceful surroundings, and golf balls flying everywhere.  This season, the Indiana Area High School girls golf team is making their mark with nine players. Out of these nine players, only one is a senior.

Senior Marie Marcoline has won four matches with the team. Being one of the top three players, her goal for the season is, “to shoot in the lower 40’s, to get two putts on every hole, and work on my short game around the green.”  While Marcoline enjoys playing for the IHS golf team, she does not plan on playing golf competitively in college because she doesn’t want to travel every weekend, and would like to focus more on her studies.

Freshmen Jennifer Todd, whose goal for the season is to shoot under 50 stated, “I enjoy the people the most and the social atmosphere in the sport is so much fun!”

The teams that Indiana plays against range from being competitive enough that the scores are very close, to one of the teams being very good, such as Penn Trafford, making things more challenging. Each player tries their best to score the least amount of points. This is different from other sports where they try to get the most points to win. The Indiana girls golf team scores range from 215 to 206 and they are trying to get down to 200.

As competitive as golf is, it is amazing that there is such camaraderie between the opposing teams. Even though Penn Trafford is one of the most difficult teams they play against,  Marcoline stated that “the girls [on the team] are really enjoyable.”

With the golf season coming to a close, players continuing to be part of the team next season have noticed some things they would like to improve upon. Sophomore Hannah Reilly touched on the topic saying, “We could work on our skills overall and have fun while playing rather than take it too seriously.”

Like with any sport, golf can be challenging and risky, but the rewards outweigh the fears of not taking that final swing.  Even though the team may not win every match, the girls can all agree that being part of the team is one of the highlights of their high school experience.

[Photo by Erik Puskar]

Photo Caption: “Hannah Reilly takes her last shot of the match from the green.”