Four seniors like family

Golfers enjoy unique atmosphere with SSHS

Graham Thomas/Siloam Sunday Siloam Springs senior golfers, from left, McKenzie Blanchard, Kaitlyn Robinson, Jaelee Snyder and Kendall McCormick, have made steady improvement in their years in the SSHS golf program. The four seniors will represent the Lady Panthers on Wednesday in the Class 5A State Girls Golf Tournament at Hot Springs Country Club.
Graham Thomas/Siloam Sunday Siloam Springs senior golfers, from left, McKenzie Blanchard, Kaitlyn Robinson, Jaelee Snyder and Kendall McCormick, have made steady improvement in their years in the SSHS golf program. The four seniors will represent the Lady Panthers on Wednesday in the Class 5A State Girls Golf Tournament at Hot Springs Country Club.

Siloam Springs senior McKenzie Blanchard, Kendall McCormick, Kaitlyn Robinson and Jaelee Snyder all had different motivations for joining the Lady Panthers golf team.

Blanchard simply wanted to try it for fun. Snyder joined because Blanchard talked her into it. Robinson was still fairly new to Siloam Springs and looking for something to be a part of as a freshman

And when McCormick joined the team as a sophomore, she was in search of a new sport to play.

The four seniors' reasons for joining may have been different. What ended up happening, however, is the girls wound up developing a family-like bond that has become a trademark of the Siloam Springs golf program over the years.

"We go places and we talk to other teams, and other teams have told us multiple times that they don't have this family relationship," Robinson said. "That's just beyond comprehensible for me. They've always been like sisters to me and that's something I don't think I could get in another team."

Blanchard, McCormick, Robinson and Snyder are all set to play one final match together on Wednesday in the Class 5A State Girls Golf Tournament at Hot Springs Country Club.

A practice round is set for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, followed by the 18-hole round tournament on Wednesday at 11 a.m.

It's a bittersweet time for the seniors, who have accomplished a lot in their four years.

"Oh I'm definitely going to cry at the end of the round," Robinson said with a laugh.

"I'm about to start crying right now," Blanchard replied.

"Talking about crying makes me cry," said McCormick, which elicited a laugh from all in the room.

Steady improvement

The four Lady Panthers have all made steady improvement since they first started playing.

They were all shooting an 18-hole average above 120 when they started, and each one has lowered their stroke average by a minimum of 26 strokes.

The biggest drop has come from Robinson, who was an all-state selection after finishing in the top eight at the Class 6A tournament last year.

Robinson was averaging a 142 her freshman year and dropped to a 107 as a sophomore and 95 as a junior. As a senior, she leads the Lady Panthers with a 91 average and was recently named All-Conference in the 5A-West as Siloam Springs finished 2018 5A-West Conference runner-up last Monday at Ben Geren Park.

"Whenever I came in as a freshman, honestly, I couldn't have told you these girls' names," said Robinson, who moved here her sixth-grade year from the North Little Rock area. "I really didn't know a lot of people and I knew very, very little about golf. ... It's obvious score-wise I've come a long way, but just being able to grow and learn with these girls has been a blessing because not everyone gets this opportunity."

Blanchard has shaved 26 strokes off her average of 119 as a freshman, moving from 106 as a sophomore to 98 as a junior and 93 this season, which is second on the team.

"So coming in, I wasn't very confident in my golf skills (as a freshman)," Blanchard said. "Just wanted to try it out. ... So that first year was really fun, and I developed a love for the sport. Then the next few years after that I just continued to grow and learned I can actually do this and I can play golf. Being with these girls for the past four years has been something that I've loved and looked forward to the first semester of every year because we're a family and they've loved me so well."

Snyder has watched her average score drop from 138 as a freshman to 114 as a sophomore to 103 as a junior and she's at 99 this year.

"I still remember in eighth grade when I was walking down the hall, McKenzie was like 'Try out for golf with me. Karson (Clement) and all these other people are doing it. It'll be so fun.'" Snyder recalled. "So I went and tried out without knowing anything about golf. And I developed really close friends -- all the seniors that have already graduated like Amanda (Glass) and Halle (Hevener) and Brinkley (Beever). Brinkley was like a really good role model for all of us. We just wanted to be that. It became more of a competition than just for fun. I think just that has put a passion in all of us to get better."

McCormick joined the team as a sophomore, where she averaged a 134, but has brought that down to 115 as a junior and 104 this season. However, McCormick recently shot her best round of the year, a 90 at the 5A-West Conference Tournament and was named All-Conference along with Robinson.

McCormick said there were a number of factors that influenced her to come out for golf. One, as a sophomore, she had English class with coach Michael Robertson's wife, Kaylie Robertson, as her teacher and Blanchard and Snyder were both in that class.

Another was she had been playing volleyball and basketball but was looking for a new sport to play.

"I was like talking to my dad for several weeks about joining golf, and I was such good friends with McKenzie before playing volleyball and basketball with her," McCormick said. "Me and Jaelee grew such a big bond that I just wanted to be with them all the time. My dad was like I think you should try (golf). I didn't want to be in basketball anymore, didn't want to be in volleyball. I needed another sport. I love playing, and I wanted to get in something new. An opportunity happened and I took it."

All important

All four have played a role in the Lady Panthers' success this season. Each one has either led the team in scoring or been second in at least one match this year.

The result has been a team that doesn't necessarily have to rely on one low score to be successful, as so many girls golf teams have had in the past.

"Of our most successful girls teams, the formula has been one girl in the mid-70s, one really, really good score and then we've kind of pieced together some other good solid scores with it," Robertson said. "This group has been a little different this year in that we're scoring as good as we probably did a year ago, but we're doing it in a different way -- three solid scores. Everyday it's someone different. You never really know who it's going to be.

"When we've played really well, we've gotten all four of them to step up and three of them play really well. It's a little bit different way of getting there. You could see early on in the year, this has a chance to be a better scoring team than a year ago because of the progression each of them had made individually."

Blanchard said knowing that she doesn't necessarily have to play her best for the team to do well alleviates a lot of pressure from her personally. She knows she can count on her teammates.

"It allows you to enjoy the game a lot more when you can trust and rely on your pals to step it up whenever you're not having a great day," Blanchard said.

Robinson said there's always going to be a little pressure though.

"I mean there's always that pressure because you want to help contribute to your team," Robinson said. "Everyone wants to be the best. In another sense you know that even if you do have a bad day, even if we don't make the cut, we have a team that will support each other no matter what."

Robertson said he was going through old photos recently and found some of his four seniors.

"It's funny how they've progressed, not only as golfers but they've matured physically and mentally," Robertson said. "It's fun to see the progression -- all of them growing, on and off the course. I tell you what's really, really fun is seeing them even on the days they don't play very well, they're finding ways to still score well. That's progression as players. None of them could have done that two years ago. They needed to play well to score well. Well now that's not the case. You see that as recently as (Monday at the 5A-West Tournament) at times."

All different

Each of the golfers brings a little something different to the table, their coach said.

Blanchard is really strong with her short game, on the green and chipping, he said.

Robinson is strong and long off the tee and has a really good wedge shot, Robertson said.

Snyder is steady, he said. She's the shortest distance off the tee of the four, but she keeps the ball in play, chips and putts well and is solid mentally.

McCormick is "unbelievably long" off the tee and really strong, he said, but her biggest strength is she's "cool and calm" and has a great demeanor for golf.

And they're all seasoned veterans now.

"This group -- it's hard to dispute that they're probably going to leave as one of the most decorated and successful girls groups we've had in their four years," Robertson said. "They've been conference champs (2016). They've been state runner-up (2017). They've been conference runner-up three times (2015, 2017, 2018). So they've been right there many times and accomplished some big things several times as well.

"But even more than that, they're great young ladies. They're super involved in their community. They're amazing students. I think I figured their ACT average is a 27 as a group between the four of them -- over a 3.5 grade point average. So they're going to be super successful regardless of what happens next week, in life, in general, and I know that."

Sports on 09/23/2018