JC golfers hope for continued success (08/02/2008)

Breaking the record set last season is probably a tall order. But Jay County High School girls golf coach Tom Ferguson is hoping his team can post similar scores to those put up by the 2007 squad.

The team will look to continue off of last year's school-record 11-1 finish as it opens its 2008 campaign Monday at the Richmond Invitational.

"I don't think we'll have a problem with a winning season," said Ferguson, whose team broke the school record last season with a 176 against Winchester. "I told them my goal for this team is to just post numbers similar to last season. ...

"With Trisha (Champ) gone, I think that's a pretty high goal. That's kind of what I've set out for them to do."

Filling in for Champ's departed 40.9 average, nearly 10 strokes better than anyone else on the team, in her senior season stands as the biggest challenge for the Patriots. They'll try to do it with a varsity lineup of entirely seniors and sophomores.

At Richmond Monday, Ferguson said he plans to start seniors Jennifer Hunt and Ivy Simons along with sophomores Cara Garringer, Abby Denney and Macey Gerber. Along with those five he said seniors Alex Bunch and Rachel Osterholt will also get varsity playing time, and Anneliese Jetmore may be in the mix as well.

Hunt is the top returning scorer for the Patriots, whose lone loss last season came against No. 9 Richmond, after averaging 50.8 strokes per nine holes last season. She shot 50 or better in seven of her last 10 nine-hole rounds, and finished with a 97 at the sectional tournament to miss advancing to the regional round by just two strokes.

Simons is the No. 2 returning scorer with a 53-stroke average in 2007. She had a run of three sub-50 rounds in four tries during the second half of last season.

"Jennifer's short game is looking really good," said Ferguson. "That should make her score. She won't have any problem scoring in the 40s.

"Ivy has played in some summer tournaments. I think she'll be consistent ..."

The group of sophomores joining those two seniors in the opening-day starting lineup has Ferguson excited about the future of the program.

Garringer, who followed Hunt and Simons last year with a 55.3 average, will have a chance to battle for the No. 1 spot in the line-up. And Gerber (58) and Denney (58.5), have both shown vast improvements in preseason practice.

"Cara is hitting the ball hard and her short game is improving," said Ferguson. "You're going to see considerable improvement from her this year.

"Abby Denney and Macey Gerber have come in really playing well. ... They've both posted scores in the 40s in practice consistently.

"Abby Denney is hitting the ball a mile. She's really long off the tee. She just needs to straighten it out a bit."

Osterholt (55.4) and Bunch (58) will likely make their season debuts, Ferguson said, at Tuesday's Monroe Central Invitational.

"We've told the kids all along this summer that we expect this team to shoot comparable scores to last year, even without Trisha," said Ferguson of the IUPUI recruit, who was a three-time regional qualifier and holds Jay County's school records for both nine (2-under-par 34) and 18 (77 at 2006 regional) holes. "If each kid cuts one or two strokes off their score on average, that would make up for what we lost with Trisha. And every one of these kids should improve that much.

"We're definitely going to have to be more consistent with five scores. We can't have two or three kids blow up in the same round. We could handle one or two with Trisha because she was going to have that low score to pull us down there. It's just consistently posting scores in the 40s, which I think they're capable of."

The Patriots do have an unusual advantage this year as they will have their full compliment of players for the entire season. In most years they start out short-handed because the opening week of girls golf season generally coincides with JCHS band camp.

But band camp has come and gone this year, meaning Ferguson can put his top five varsity players on the court from the get-go.

"It's exciting, because it will give Jennifer and Ivy some 18-hole experience that they don't normally get until the end of the season," said Ferguson. "Usually their only 18-hole courses are Olympic Conference and sectional. So for them to get 18 holes in at the beginning of the season is very helpful for the team."

Like any other year, Ferguson said one of the biggest keys for his team will be to keep its disastrous shots to a minimum. And when those bad shots do occur, his players need to overcome them and not allow one bad hole turn into a stretch of bad holes.

"The majority of them it's just short game experience," said Ferguson. "When you're talking three or four sophomores playing on varsity, they just need to get a lot of experience.

"I'm looking forward to Monday. We'll know a little bit more after this week."

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