Women’s golf overpowered by St. Francis

By Elissa Koh,
BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–

St. Francis beat the Blue Devils by a large margin on Tuesday, Sept. 20 with a cumulative score of 218– 40 points lower than the Blue Devils’ score of 258. However, the Davis High women’s golf team faced a major problem as it went into its 9-hole match with St. Francis at El Macero Country Club. Not only did it face one of its greatest rivals in the league, but it also had an unexpected shortage of players.

No. 1 player and junior Marie Dean led the Blue Devils with a score of 39 while junior Madison Green tailed closely with her own score of 40. Juniors McKenna Chupka and Alex Johnson finished with a 50 and 60, respectively, and senior Bailey Ringer wrapped up the team’s score with a 69.

As the teams were about to start teeing off, senior Mary Camille Lovely walked towards the parking lot with her golf bag in tow. Returning to the first hole empty-handed, Lovely watched on the sidelines as her teammates began to take their first shots of the match, but did not go up to the tee box herself to swing.

Lovely was scheduled to play in the match but had recently injured her toe during a soccer game. She found that she had a hard time trying to balance herself when swinging her club while also trying not to put pressure on her foot. Despite her injury, Lovely stayed to watch in order to cheer her team on.

However, with one player short, the team scrambled to find another replacement but the players ultimately ran out of time and had to play one person short.

“It was a bummer to not be able to play because I went out and was really trying and no one was available, so [the team] had to play with [only five players], meaning that all five scores would have to be taken,” Lovely said.

Although the Blue Devils faced a devastating loss as a team, Chupka was pleased with her own score of 50 as she saw her hard work reflected through the lower number of strokes. Chupka was able to start off strong, scoring pars on the first two holes, which helped to boost her confidence so that she was able to maintain a lower score, with some difficulty, throughout all 9 holes. However, during the last two holes, Chupka fell short and was unable to break 50.

“I think that today really showed how much my putting and driving has improved. […] Going into the eighth hole with a 37, I felt confident that I could shoot a 46 or so total, but I struggled with maintaining a strong consistency,” Chupka said.

Chupka was optimistic about the team’s results, despite not having all her teammates agree.

“Personally, I think the team did well as a whole, but I know that some of my teammates were disappointed and frustrated in the way they played. It was just unfortunate that we did not play our best golf when we were up against our [rival] St. Francis,” Chupka said.

The women’s golf team hopes to rebound from its loss against St. Francis in its upcoming match against Sheldon at Wildhawk Golf Course on Monday, Sept. 26.