The Rock Bridge girls’ golf team has a large deficit to overcome before districts.
The scores started coming in for Rock Bridge at the William Woods Tournament on Tuesday at Tanglewood Golf Course, and coach Melissa Melahn was feeling good. Senior Anna Coil fired a 10-over-par 82 to tie for fourth place individually and Molly Ramsey carded a personal-best 95 to lead the Bruins. Danielle Kellar and Allison Coffelt also shot 95s, helping Rock Bridge to a team total of 367, one of the team’s better 18-hole scores of the season.
Most of the good feelings washed away quickly, however, when the other teams’ scores came in. Helias ran away with the tournament title, led by two sub-80 rounds and an 87 from its No. 4 player on the way to setting a school record of 333.
The low scores certainly weren’t a shock to Melahn, but it might have surprised some of her players.
“It was an eye-opener to us all,” she said. “It’s not just Jefferson City now, and the girls see that there is depth in competition for districts.”
With the district tournament looming on Oct. 3, there isn’t much time to figure out how to make up the 34-stroke difference, but Melahn thinks her team still has a good chance to do just that.
“Well, you can’t really expect Helias to shoot that low again,” she said of the record-setting performance. “But then again, Jefferson City is a lot better than they played (finishing in sixth place at 378), so it’s really a crapshoot right now.”
The same mistakes that have plagued the Bruins from the beginning of the year continue to hurt.
“It was the short game that killed us (on Tuesday),” Melahn said. “There are a lot of undulations on the greens at Tanglewood, so if you don’t figure out the greens in the first few holes, you’re in for a long day.”
Unfortunately for Melahn, no one really got comfortable on the tricky greens. On the bus ride home, she has the girls add up how many 3-putts they had, and there were at least 20 such misadventures among the Bruins in Tuesday’s round. Melahn said that the easiest place to lose strokes is on the greens, and she is now dedicating almost 100 percent of practice time to getting those shots back as soon as possible.
The team went out to Lake of the Woods Golf Course Thursday, but rather than play nine holes like at most practices, it started at the 150-yard mark on each hole to work on short irons, wedges and putting. Today’s practice will solely consist of chipping, putting and some iron work on the range at the Country Club of Missouri. Melahn knows that the practice will come in handy for the district tournament, but it also will be beneficial in the team’s next outing at Monday’s Capitol City Tournament in Jefferson City.
“Jefferson City Country Club isn’t easy,” Melahn said. “It’s like putting on ice, so the greens will be a good test for my girls. It will be a good match to see if we’re ready for districts.”
Another factor just as detrimental to the Bruins as difficult greens has been focus.
“There’s no reason for us not to be prepared,” Melahn said. “I think there are a lot of nerves out there, which I can’t explain.”
We have got to focus on the mental aspect of the game.”
On the bus ride home from Tanglewood, the team discussed what it will take to qualify for the state tournament. While the cut last year for individuals was 94, Melahn said it will be lower this year, possibly needing to break 90 to make it.
“We know we aren’t comfortable where we are,” she said. “If they are committed to working on their games and dropping a few strokes, we still have it in us (to qualify as a team).”