Patience, perseverance, and honesty. To most, these words may not mean very much. To others, such as football players or members of a baseball team, these attributes might ring a few bells. However, none understand these better than an avid golfer.
Despite being commonly referred to as ´the Gentleman’s sport,´ Spring Valley only has a women´s golf team. Similar to other sports teams at Spring Valley, like bowling and baseball, it largely goes unnoticed. This goes against the fact that they are one of the most active sports teams across the whole school.
“Golf, by virtue of it’s independent nature, is very frustrating because you’re the one responsible for all your mistakes, and there’s no one else to blame.” Allison Kameda, a junior in the women’s golf team said. Spring Valley’s under-represented women’s golf team currently meets about three times a week. During the meetings they discuss the details of their upcoming match, and typically spend the rest of the time doing two things: practice putting short distances, and practicing long distance shots.
The ambitious golf team has one competitive match every week, and five matches every season. The matches themselves usually start during school, so they leave class early, drive to the course, warm up, and then finally compete. Each player is scored individually, so the competition lies more between each girl rather than each school. Using an app called Birdie Fire, they update their live scores hole by hole, until the leaderboard is finalized at the end of the day. An especially active golfer may find herself climbing the ranks week by week, but the main goal of course is to just have fun.
“Golf is all about being honest. When you count your shots and fill out your score card, it would be so easy to omit a bad putt or two. But cheating never comes lightly. You owe it as a courtesy to the players around you, and yourself to be honest. Only then can you genuinely seek to improve yourself.” Allison exclaimed.