With water up to her calves, MHS Sophomore Belle Felt moved to take a swing out of the river. Before the chilly water could set into her bones, she took the shot, launching an explosion of water along with her ball onto the rough. Every stroke of a match counts, especially at a tournament with 18 holes.
Players like Felt, the number four on the girls’ golf varsity team, will do anything they can to keep their score low– even bracing a river to avoid a penalty stroke.
For many varsity players, golf can be enjoyed alone and with a team. Junior Elsa Yount, number two on the team as she is the second best player from her low scores of 41 for nine and 83 for 18, loves the game and often plays with her family.
Senior Taegen Skatzka, number one on the team from her astounding scores of 31 for nine holes, which is five under par, and a 70 for 18 holes, which was one under par, likes being outside and meeting new people.
“I like how it’s a team sport but also an individual sport,” Skatzka said. “You don’t have to rely on your team and you can play by yourself. But you have the support of the team.”
(Addison Scigliano)
Skatzka has been playing varsity since she became a star her freshman year, shooting up through the ranks.
And she puts in the work, especially during the summer when she and the golf team’s number three who’s best scores of 43 for nine holes and 90 for 18 holes- slightly higher than Yount’s- Grace Mead, stayed active by competing in summer tournaments.
They both played in the Kensington Junior Tour and both adored it. “Everybody wants to be there, and it’s really fun meeting and playing with new people that you wouldn’t usually play with,” Mead said. Skatzka shared similar ideas, as the girls they had played with “care about golf.” Skatzka also competed in the Callaway Meijer and the Top 50, placing first for both the Kensington Junior Tour and the Top 50.
While playing in the summer tournaments improved their game and let them play with new people they wouldn’t have otherwise, both Skatzka and Mead shared their opinions on how much they missed playing with the team. “Summer tournaments are fun but there’s no team. So it’s fun to be a part of the team again,” Skatzka said.
Both Skatzka and Mead are excited to be seniors and role models for the younger players. Mead likes the “drive to play golf- even when it’s a bad day the next day you still want to come back.”
She also enjoys bonding with her teammates. “It’s always fun to just come back and regroup,” she said. “Just coming back to the team and just having the team is my favorite part.”
Yount, meanwhile, is most enthusiastic to play with the seniors before they leave, and to play with the new players. “I love just playing with new people and the people on my team.” Mead and Skatzka added, “We love everybody on the team and it’s so much fun getting to hang out with everyone.”
Their coach, Hugh Felt, an adaptive physical education instructor at Milford High School, expressed his concerns with the other players not playing in the summer before tryouts. “The most frustrating part about getting back here is I’m teaching stuff that I shouldn’t have to teach,”
Felt continued about how he has to teach the basics of golf, every year.
“I’d be naive, I’d be silly to think that everybody goes and practices,” said Felt about girls not playing year round and waiting to play until right before tryouts. While this may be true for most of the players, Felt even admitted it was true for his daughter, Belle Felt.
He claims he “stopped really trying to coach her.” But Belle Felt wasn’t to be deterred from making varsity her sophomore year. Felt explained how in the winter he got her lessons and how it’s made a world of difference for her.
Her goal as a sophomore was to make varsity, and Felt wasn’t going to just hand it to her, she had to earn it. And in order to do that, her scores had to improve by taking fewer strokes and not making three putts.
Tryouts come along in the beginning of August when the players play nine holes for three days, and on that final day the coaches look at the players scores for the three days and determine if their scores are low enough to put them on varsity, or if the players didn’t improve enough then they might be cut.
He says that to be better, the players must put in the work. “It’s not just putting the time in and actually being here, it’s putting the time in and hitting lots and lots of shots- not just hundreds of shots, but thousands. It’s wanting to be better at it.”
He could identify the players who excel with this- those who care about the game and who put the time and effort in, like he did with Yount and Skatzka when they were freshmen.
On August 22, 2024, Skatzka committed to Davenport University. After going through the time consuming NCAA eligibility center that division one and two schools require for athletes to play, the recruitment process of phone calls with coaches and visiting the campus wasn’t bad for Skatzka. She even received a golf scholarship for the division two school.
With her Milford High School golf career coming to a close with her last tournament on Oct. 7, 2024, Skatzka eagerly awaits to play golf for her future college team at Davenport University.
