Fall Sports Preview: Tiger Golf

ANYHONY CRANE/TIMES-TRIBUNE
Worth County golf: from left; Emsley Spainhower, Bailey Steele, Marissa Schmitz, Dakota Hendrix, Bridgette Hightshoe, Eva Engel, Katie Fetchall, Brylea Paxson and Arenna Galanakis.

Worth County head coach Janice Borey has had her hands full this summer with an influx of new golfers to the Tigers’ program. The team enters the fall with nine girls on the roster.

“At first it was a little overwhelming because you want to help everybody,” Borey said. “So some days I will rotate them in and out. Some will go play holes and then I’ll work with part of them, then send them out and work with the others.”

The Tigers have three juniors on this year’s team in Eva Engel, Bridgette Hightshoe and Dakota Hendrix. Borey’s biggest class is the sophomore group of Brylea Paxson, Marissa Schmitz, Bailey Steele and Katelyn Fletchall. Worth County also has freshmen Arenna Galanakis and Emsley Spainhower.

“Those older girls are really good about helping out the younger ones,” Borey said. “I’ve got some pretty good leaders.”

Engel and Hightshoe both qualified for the state tournament last season. Hightshoe finished 29th in the tournament with a score of 226 in two rounds, while Engel finished 61st with a score of 251.

Hightshoe says she has been working hard to improve on last year’s performance.

“I’ve been working with my driver to get more width so that I can drive the ball further,” Hightshoe said. “I think we have the chance to be good, and I think we can improve our scores if we work on our focus.”

Engel’s run to state came in a sport she says she plays just for fun. The Worth County track star said that golf is a nice break for her, but hopes that she can continue to improve at the game.

“I would like to be able to get into the fifties,” Engel said. “I want to get good scores, work as a team and just have fun with it.”

Worth County’s season begins on Monday with a trip to Mozingo Recreation Park in Maryville for a tournament. Mozingo provides the Tigers with challenges that they don’t regularly face. Borey says that the course can be intimidating for her golfers.

“Mozingo is long, but it is not as bad as the girls sometimes think it is,” Borey said. “You’ve got plenty of room to spatter as long as it’s not too crazy of a spattering. I’m hopeful for them and that’ll be the first challenge of the season.”

Worth County will then travel to Stanberry on Wednesday for a quad with Stanberry, King City, and Gallatin. On Thursday, the Tigers will travel to Bethany for the South Harrison Bulldog Triangular.

“I’d like to see us score better than we did last year and have the confidence that they can do that,” Borey said. “They can do it because I’ve seen them do it. They just have to have the confidence to go out and know that they’ll be able to hit that in the low forties or low fifties. I just want to see a greater confidence that they can do that. I’d also like to win some matches because that would be fun and it is always fun to win. But definitely I want them to get better as the season progresses.”