Young Highland girls golf team sees steady improvement in COVID-19 challenged season

In a season nearly wiped out by restrictions and challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a true test of perseverance with a focus on steady improvement each week for a Highland girls golf club that sported a freshman and sophomore dominant roster this fall.

“They (the girls) were wonderful actually,” Highland coach Ashley DeSelm said. “The girls never complained when the first rules came out where they had to wear a mask — they didn’t complain or anything — they wore their masks and did what they had to do to have a season.”

During the season, the Lady Bulldogs young squad had their hands full in bigger tournaments such as the Belleville West Invitational and the Metro East Challenge in August.

In September, Highland got a confidence boost thanks to a strong second-place finish in the Belleville East Co-ed Challenge at Tamarack Golf Course in Shiloh. The Lady Bulldogs combined with the Bulldogs boys team to capture second place behind tournament champ and host O’Fallon thanks to a blistering 284 team score.

After the Belleville East Tournament, the Lady Bulldogs continued to play well in match play as they won or placed second five of their last seven matches which included wins over Jerseyville and Mascoutah on Sept. 28, and Freeburg, Nashville, and Breese Central on Oct. 5.

DeSelm credits a big improvement in scores for that strong match play during the season.

“Yes, they did improve throughout the whole season and I was comparing scores from this year to last year’s in our matches and we scored much better in our matches this year,” DeSelm said. “In our tournaments, we shaved so much off our scores.

“The Far Oaks tournament we shaved (off) 40 strokes from last year and the Alton Tournament we did 42 strokes and Madison County Tournament, we did 22 strokes, so it’s wonderful to see all our hard work pay off.”

Korte steers the Lady Bulldogs in 2020

There was one golfer DeSelm never had to worry about being dialed in when she hit the links each match or in practice. That was standout senior Claire Korte.

Korte was Highland’s anchor and consistently brought her A-game.

She helped Highland to a third-place finish in the Mississippi Valley Conference championships Sept. 30 at Belk Park Golf Course in Wood River, shooting a solid 89 to lead the Lady Bulldogs. Highland finished just five shots behind second-place Waterloo with a score of 374.

“I’ve been coaching Claire now for three years and she’s just an amazing girl,” DeSelm said. “She is always asking if I need help doing something, and she’s a very good person and a very hard worker and I’ve been really happy to see her shot improve this year.

“She had a scoring average of 14.9 over par last year and she dropped down to a 9.4 over par; that’s a huge drop in score and it was so good to see all her hard work paying off.”

Korte agreed.

“I guess this year was just (focused on) a lot of self improvement and doing more work outside of practice like doing stuff at home and going out (to play) on the weekends and for me it was all about self improvement,” Korte said.

Other key contributors for HHS

Other Lady Bulldogs that helped the club improve over the season were junior Lilly Barker, sophomores Raeghan Henrichs and Maci Miles, and freshmen Kaeli Gould and Brooke Hunsche.

DeSelm was extremely pleased with their development this fall and is quite excited about the potential the group has to raise their level play in 2021.

Seniors Maddie Noeltner, Hannah Wilkes-Null, and Barb Meguire were on the varsity roster as well and contributed, but mostly competed in JV matches.

Highland senior reflects on missing state

There was only one real downside at the end of the season, as Korte missed qualifying for the IHSA Class 1A sectionals after shooting a 96 on a tough day at the Alton Marquette Regional at Spencer T. Olin Golf Course in Alton. It was Korte’s last shot at a state berth and missing left her frustrated.

“When I didn’t get it (the state qualifier) it was confusing and frustrating at first (when it happened) and I really came to terms with it because we didn’t have a state tournament or anything like that,” Korte said.

“I was me getting into my own head because I was doing good parring holes literally until the last hole when everyone was watching me and all the pressure was on. So I guess if I had to do it over I would be more focused and not getting too caught up in what was next.”

Korte, who will not play golf in college, said the biggest thing she will miss about playing at Highland is the social connections on and off the course with the rest of the team.

“Like I said, I can always go to the course and hit golf balls but it’s not gonna be the same. I was glad we all got to play together,” she said.