sports@southwesttimes.com
In a little under a week, junior Madison Smith will compete in one of the biggest stages of her life, as she competes on October 26 and 27 for a VHSL State Championship in golf at the Kempsville Greens Municipal Golf Course in Virginia Beach.
Smith, who will be the first Cougar female to ever make it to the new State Championship format, will be facing the very best young golf talent that Virginia has to offer. With the addition of girl’s golf, all A, AA, and AAA schools will compete at the same circuit.
“I’m extremely nervous about it,” Smith said. “I think about and I feel it’s not that bad, but I’ll think about it a lot when I get down there. It’s not going to be like Regionals when you have some of the same girls on the same playing field. You have got girls who have been playing a lot longer. I feel like its going to be a step up in competition.”
“She’s really come along in the past year or so,” said Cougars golf coach Daniel Goff. “From last to this year, it has been a pretty big jump as far as the tournaments. She’s saying consistently in the 80’s for the most part this year.”
The first thing that she did when she found out she qualified was to take a look at where she will be playing. According to their Virginia Golf website, the Kempsville Greens Municipal Course is 5,849 yards, features 18 holes, and is a Par 70 links. It’s been open since 1951, but was re-designed in 1985.
It features a long front nine and a tight back nine with many water hazards. Smith has been doing a lot of studying and practicing for what the entire course will offer.
“The course has a website and I just looked the score card and preparing myself for the yardage,” Smith said. “I’m focused on just making the shots and preparing for the ones you wouldn’t think you would get into by practicing.”
“We’ve looked at the website,” Goff said. “There really hasn’t been any advice from me until we get down there to the practice rounds. She is going down Saturday for one practice round and one Sunday. She’ll start the tournament on Monday. She’ll get to play the course. Websites are just websites though.”
Not only has she spent time preparing for the course, but she decided to work on individual aspects of her game. The majority of her time has been spent working on the aspect that has given her the most trouble this season – her putting ability.
“At Regionals, my putting was really bad,” Smith said. “So I’ve been working on my putting a lot and just trying to improve it. It has gotten better.”
“We’ve been doing a lot of putting on the putting greens and trying to improve that,” Goff said. “We both seem to think that the weakest part of her game is when she got on the green or just around the green. So we’ve been working a lot on putting the last couple of weeks.”
She and her parents will take the trip to Virginia Beach early so that she can get a glimpse of the course and play a few practice rounds before the tournament begins on Monday at 10:00 a.m.
“Saturday we are going down there and ride around the course and look around,” Smith said. “Sunday I have a practice round and will play all 18 holes. Then on Monday and Tuesday, I’ll play for the championship.”
What the future holds for Smith at the tournament is unknown, but the junior is sure to give it her all come Monday and Tuesday for a chance to capture not only glory, but a State Championship for herself and Pulaski County.
(10-17-09)
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