At Tuesday’s Bulldog Invite in Craig, the golfers weren’t keeping secrets from each other.
Steamboat Springs freshman Quin Yeager, a Moffat County player, and a pair of Palisade golfers were sharing tips and encouragement even though they were competing with one another.
Sailor girls golfers earn top-10 finishes
CRAIG — High school girls golf has a sense of camaraderie that many sports do not.
At Tuesday’s Bulldog Invite in Craig, the golfers weren’t keeping secrets from each other.
Steamboat Springs freshman Quin Yeager, a Moffat County player, and a pair of Palisade golfers were sharing tips and encouragement even though they were competing with one another.
“You have more room left if you want to go more left,” Yeager told a competitor who was taking a provisional shot to make up for one that flew right out of bounds.
Yeager said that sort of banter doesn’t always happen but was frequent during Tuesday’s invitational.
“It all depends on the girls that you’re with. Some of them get really competitive about it,” Yeager said. “But it’s pretty typical.”
Helping each other out, the four girls were able to play through tough holes and ended up doing well.
Yeager was 19th with 121 strokes. With just two individual players, the Sailors didn’t record a team score but were coming off a win from Monday’s event in Glenwood Springs.
Ahead of teeing off on hole 16, Yeager walked over to head coach Shannon Hanley. The Sailor said she was having a much better day than Monday. Then, when it was her turn to tee off, she turned around and told her coach, “I’m gonna go make you proud.”
“OK go make me proud, kiddo,” Hanley said.
Hanley said it isn’t any one performance that makes her proud, but rather the long-term improvement she’s seen from Yeager.
“Watching her continually improving week to week has been really rewarding to her,” Hanley said. “I see the excitement and enthusiasm for the game jumping out.”
Hanely said Yeager is one of those kids who shows up to every single practice, even when she says she won’t be able to.
The young freshman isn’t the only one. The team has a large group of freshmen who all seem just as dedicated to the sport, hinting at a positive future for the program.
Among them is Catherine Larock, who finished eighth on Tuesday with a 107.
Just a few Sailors competed Tuesday as most played in Glenwood Springs on Monday. Led by freshman Alex Hanna, who took fourth with an 86, the team won the Demon Invitational.
Steamboat had three golfers in the top 10 at Glenwood. Hanna was fourth, 10 strokes behind winner Logan Hale of Vail Mountain. Alexandra Culver, a junior, was fifth with 94 strokes and Sophia Gowdy finished eighth with 98. Yeager took 25th with a 114, and Caroline Henninger finished 32nd.
“It was our first actual first-place finish, which was really exciting for the kids,” Hanley said. “This time of year, because of COVID, there’s a lot of multiple tournaments going on simultaneously, so not the strongest field, but the kids played great and stuck it out in the crummy weather.”
