Episode Transcript
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[00:00:54] Speaker B: Welcome.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: Cause you are now listening to from the Cart Pass with your host Trent Roberts bringing you tips, support and player recognition and education with the experts for parents and junior golfers in Indiana.
This is from the CART Path with your host Trent Roberts.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Hey everyone, this is Trent Roberts again with from the Cart Path. And we decided to have a special episode tonight with one of my counterparts that's doing something similar down in Kentucky. And I'll let him explain a little bit about that as well. Clay Suiter, he is the head coach at South Oldham High School down there in the Louisville area.
And they are having their North South Invitational this Tuesday where they have invited, I believe it's seven teams from Indiana. So we're going to have seven teams from Indiana down there and how many teams from Kentucky, Clay?
[00:01:53] Speaker B: We've got about 15 teams from Kentucky plus individuals.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah, perfect. So I'm going to let Clay tell us a little bit about. Well, hey, Clay, first, I know we've talked a lot over the last five, six months just because of what you're doing for birdies from Kentucky and what I'm doing with from the CART Pass. So talk to me a little bit about how you guys got started with that and then we'll get on to talking a little bit about the North South Invitational.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I think. Yeah, thanks for having me, Trent. I think what you're doing up in Indiana for junior golf is fantastic. And you know, we kind of also saw a need down here in Kentucky to really highlight, you know, the successes of what junior golfers are doing here in Kentucky.
It's been fantastic, you know, you know, seeing what our kids are doing down here to be able to highlight what they're doing week in Week out, day in, day out, from, from the boys side and from the girls side. So, you know, we're, we're, we're being able to, to do that, you know, showing, you know, what they're doing, you know, obviously here hopefully going into the high school season, but obviously starting back in the spring and into the summer, showing the, the tournament success for these players and, you know, give them some. Dropping some, some tidbits from what they need to do with recruiting to kind of get them on the right track, you know, and what we've kind of discussed in the past, it's, you know, seeing the joy that they're getting and, and, you know, what they're doing and the fruits of their labor, you know, and I think, you know, you and I kind of expressed that with both of our kids and what they're doing, and that's ultimately what kind of got us into starting this Instagram page. And it's, it's been kind of a fun thing to do here the last six or seven months.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Real quick, one of the things we talked about before we started the show was the number of players increases we're starting to see on the rankings. And I think what you're doing down there with your marketing has been a big part of that and you working with the state on some of the things that you're doing. But we, we don't need to talk too much about that. Tonight. I want to get more down into the, the talks of the North South Invitational, where I know it's, you know, South Oldham and North Oldham Invitational, but I kind of look at this as the north versus the south with Indiana, Kentucky. So talk to me a little bit about the Invitational and when did you guys start inviting teams from Indiana?
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah, so last year we. So this is the fourth year we've done the north and South.
It's, it's hosted by South Oldham High School and North Oldham High School just outside of Louisville.
This is our fourth year and we started inviting Indiana schools primarily. We had Floyd Central and New Albany come over last year and it was very well received. They really had a great time last year. I think they had to get an exemption from the, from the IHSAA to come over and play in it. It kind of served as a great kind of preseason opportunity for them to get some high school experience for some of their younger players. And it was just a really fun opportunity to have some of the Indiana players come over and kind of intermingle with some of the Kentucky players. With them being so close to Louisville, some of them still, they come over and train over here with, with instructors, with some of our Kentucky kids. So it was really neat. We saw a need this year because we have so many invitationals right off the bat before school starts throughout the state where a lot of schools are being pulled in different directions. Where I kind of was like, you know, maybe I should reach out to some of the schools up throughout Indiana, reach out to some of the top schools that finished in the top five, top six in the IHSAA state tournament.
So that's when I kind of reached out to Hamilton and Carmel and Noblesville and Westfield and Franklin community to see if they'd have any interest in participating in the event. We got a great response from it because they saw it as an opportunity to kind of serve as a kind of a preseason tune up for, for your All's High school season there in Indiana. Got a great response from it. We've got a great amount of good talent coming in and it's kind of caused us to go and start recruiting some good talent throughout our state because we, you know, unfortunately here in Kentucky this coming week we kind of go up against the AJGA Justin Thomas event that's at Harmony Landing during the same timeframe.
So we've got a number of Kentucky players that are playing in that event.
So having a nice healthy balance of Indiana talent coming in for our event to go up against some of the still really good remaining talent we've got in our event from Kentucky, I think is really going to make for an excellent, really fun, challenging event for the Indiana kids and the Kentucky kids.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: What I think is interesting is you talked about going to get some of the better teams up in Indiana. You went and got the best teams coming from Indiana with Wilson finishing second last year, Hamilton Southeastern finishing third last year, Westfield finishing fourth, Franklin finishing fifth, and then you have Carmel who won state in 2022 and again they won state in 2023.
And I know all the coaches and I know all the teams coming down and I know all the girls are looking forward to coming down. So I know I can't speak for all them, but I know they're all excited to make the journey down tomorrow and I know a lot of them are doing their practice round tomorrow and I know it's a great time for the teams to have a stay over at one of the hotels and hang out and have some team time together before the season starts. So yeah, we thank you for that. So going in, looking at this, I don't know your teams as well as I know our teams, who are some of the teams there that we need to watch out for on Tuesday.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I think even though Sacred Heart Academy out of Louisville is going to have a few of their players playing in the Thomas AJGA event, that's probably our team to look out for here in Kentucky. They're the two time defending KHSA state champions, though. And let's go ahead and kind of address the. The elephant in the room.
Their number one players, Brooklyn Bonner, who resides in Indiana, but she doesn't attend Sacred Heart, so she currently is planning on playing in the north and South.
So I guess the question I have for you, Trent, is if Brooklyn is to win this event, is Indiana going to claim her or is Kentucky going to claim her?
[00:08:29] Speaker A: You know, I think that's a great question. I think it depends on where she decides to show up and play the state junior events at next year.
So wherever she decides to play there. No, she's a Kentucky player. She lives down there.
Yeah, she lives in Indiana. She plays in here over the summertime. We have some other girls that play in Indiana during the summer where they might be visiting family or staying with family. I'm a believer that she's playing Kentucky. She plays for Sacred Heart. They just took fourth place at the National High School Invitational down there in Pinehurst, which in my opinion is third place because that team from Georgia had an all star team that not many people understood that until after the fact.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: So Brooklyn's a Kentucky player. She just gets to play her summer golf in Indiana because of her address.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we, we look at Southern Indiana as the metro Louisville area. So I will.
Most of us are going to claim her as a Kentucky player as well. So Brooklyn, if you're listening to this, keep that in mind, you know, go out there and win that for the Kentucky kids, you know.
But yeah, I would say Sacred Heart, you know, still has a really good opportunity to finish high on Tuesday.
Bowling Green out of the southern part of the state is another team to kind of look out for. Their number one player is currently going to be playing in the ajga, Justin Thomas. So Carolina Childers will not be playing for them, but they've got some good young talent that may sneak up on on your Indiana squads.
And I think Ryle High School up out of Northern Kentucky is another one to look out for.
They're led by a senior, Anika Kuda, who's a really solid player.
So, you know, I think, you know, it's unfortunate about the Thomas event You know that so many of our teams are kind of being kind of impacted by that. It's impacting other invitationals throughout the week. I know Madison Central out of the Richmond area over by Lexington, they're hosting an invitational as well and they're having several players in that event that are also playing in the Thomas. So it's.
The invitationals will be a little bit light, but we're, we're excited about this event because we have a lot of individuals playing in it from throughout the state that are, that are going to really kind of raise the, the competitiveness of this event as well.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: And like you said, you have the Justin Thomas. We. Indiana is actually holding the PGA Championship event up at Ackerman, up at Purdue. And I think even what's interesting with that is Franklin's missing Lexi Ray, Carmel's missing Reese Routebush. And they're also missing one of their phenomenal freshmen in Maya Fujisawa Cooling. So we've got some players that aren't making the journey as well and a lot of that to do with playing at the PGA Junior. So with that being said, I think we kind of get some help there. But coming from our side, to be honest with you, Noblesville.
Noblesville finished second state last year. They may have graduated a couple of girls, however they reloaded. That is a deep school with some deep talent. As you look at their additional three players they're bringing to the event, I know these girls and those averages are accurate. They've got three girls all below 85 to 80 that aren't even on the starting roster.
So with Noblesville at the talent that they're bringing to this event, Noblesville is probably the best team coming from Indiana. And then I think you have HSC has two of the top 20 players in the state with Janelle Garcia and Sophie Roberts that they're bringing down to this event. And then, you know, one of the things I didn't get to say earlier, and we're going to talk about the individuals here in a second is Indiana is bringing eight of their 20 preseason all state players from both the first and second team with we have an individual playing in that event with Rowan Pies and then we have other individuals that are going to be just as strong with Kelsey. However, look down at Westfield and I know Josh, the coach there is for some reason all of his players all dropped three to four shots from summer golf when he starts coaching them on a daily basis because Josh Bryant's one of the best coaches in the state of Indiana. And Josh knows how to get his players going.
And then with the other schools coming in, like with New Albany and Floyd Central, those are more in the south part of the state. I know Kaden Wardlaw, I know Kaden was on the preseason all state team from, from the CART path. So I know Kaden is a great player. The Floyd Central team, I know it's Paige Giovanco graduating, that's a totally different team now without Paige as she heads up to Uindy to start her collegiate career.
But with Carmel, Carmel missing, Maya Fujisawa coming in and I know with Reese Rodebush, who's normally the number three or four player coming in, they're missing a couple of players, but they have some strong players. Maddie Headley is one strong high school player and I hope she's able to attend on Tuesday. And I know Maddie quite well, that Maddie, for some reason she could be 80 yards away from a hole on her third shot on a par four, but somehow she ends up paring every hole because that kid can putt from anywhere. So once Maddie gets going, she's going to have a good day as well.
How about you on your end?
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we're so we'll have from an individual standpoint, Tatiana Andreenko from Northern Kentucky. She's out of Dixie Heights. She's a 2027 player.
She finished top 10 in the KHSAA state tournament last year.
She's one of our top ranked players that's going to be in the field along with Brooklyn from Sacred Heart from just, you know, individual players, if we're looking at that. Annika Kuda from Ryle High School, another top player. She finished top 25 in our KHSAA state finals last year, is a returning all state player from Kentucky along with Avery Sutter from South Oldham High School, who's a Northern Kentucky commitment.
And then we've got Heidi Mitchell from Louisville Collegiate School that's going to be playing as an individual.
She was a top 20 player last year at the KHSA finals.
And then, you know, we've got another number of great individual players like Ellis Eisemore and Stella Forney and Elsie Espanola. So we've got some good individuals that are going to be able to fill out our field to kind of give you guys a run for your money here at the Northern.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I will say this. I forgot to mention some of the individuals at Noblesville because generally when I hear the word Noblesville, I think their whole team is strong. They have Josie Kelly, who on this sheet right now might be one of the better players that's going to be attending the event.
And she's actually going to be going to Eastern Kentucky when she graduates in 2026. And then they also have Olivia Fowler now. I hope you get a chance to go watch if Olivia drive the ball.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: We've seen her drive the ball. So my daughter played with her Cardinal club a year ago.
Yeah, she absolutely bombs the ball off the tee. So we were familiar with her game.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yeah, we were with Olivia at a tournament at Woodland Country Club over in Carmel. That's a great invitational that we get to play in every year.
Sophie had a about 240, 245 yard drive and she's looking at me with her strong arm. Olivia gets up there and tees the ball and it like flies past her ball, then rolls out on an extra 30 yards. So Libby's got a 290 yard drive on a par five. And we're always sitting there looking at each other like, man, you come off having a great drive and Olivia steps up to the tee box and then she just kind of makes you feel like you can't hit the ball that far. So Olivia is a heck of a player. And then with Presley White, I know Presley, I believe Presley might be one of the most improved players over the last 12 months in the state of Indiana. I mean, I mean you've seen her at Kentucky and you've seen her when you saw a win in Kentucky. I too believe, or maybe it was somewhere else.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: I think she was second at Cardinal club the Hurricane earlier, back in April. I believe earlier my daughter got a chance to play with her this year actually at Cardinal Club. Really good player.
She's like you said, she's improved a lot. So we're excited to have really this whole team from Noblesville.
My daughter got to play with Josie earlier this year at the Peggy Kirk at Oxmoor. So it's.
There's a lot of talent coming in from, from Noblesville that we're excited.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: There is. I've told everybody if Noblesville could field two teams every year to state, both those teams would be in the top six every year. That's the depth that he has down there at Noblesville right now. And you know, him being a head pro, Justin being a head pro at Harbor Trees, he knows those girls are working all summer long and he makes sure that they're working. And literally, if you ask any of those girls in that team, they're a family and they get together all the time. And those girls love being around each other, so they're fun to watch because they all really do love being around each other and so do the families. So it's a great program.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: I will say this now, when you talk about the course setup for the polo fields in Louisville, there are the par fives. You can bomb the ball off the tee.
You're going to want to play a practice round on Monday to get used to some of the par fours because you won't be able to bomb your drive run every par four. So there's some strategy involved with the way we set the course up.
So that's something to, to keep in mind when you're out there playing either the practice round or when you get, get out on the course on Tuesday for the north and south, because you'll, you'll be hitting some hybrids off the tees, maybe some longer irons, mid irons, but it'll be a little bit of a different setup than we're all used to during our regular junior golf events and high school events.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we gotta size it down for everybody and play it up for some of the others. So it's always interesting to see how high school courses are set up.
It really is. Because like, we were talking about this the other day, I was talking about a couple other people. You know, a lot of these girls just played in the Indiana State Women's Amateur last week at 6100, 6200 yards every day. And now they got to put the brakes on and start coming back to that high school distance that you see at some of these invitationals. And I would say in Indiana, we see the distances eitherwhere from 5,000 all the way up to 6,000, depending upon the event. So it's, it's a lot of putting the gas down, a lot of taking the breaks and putting them down and trying to figure out, like you said, understanding how is the course set up. Play the course sometimes, not just go out there and think you can hit driver every time.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I think I love listening to your podcast earlier this week where I think one of your players was saying, you know, you really have to readjust what you're, what you work on for high school golf, where it's wedges, wedges and wedges, because that's what you're going to be hitting in for high school golf, not mid irons for AJGA and golf week events, you know, in the spring and summer. So, yeah, so, I mean, it's, it's, it'll be a little bit of a different type of setup. We, it's fun. There'll be some risk reward holes, you know, par fours, where you may be able to figure out whether you need to drive the green or maybe lay up with a hybrid. So it'll be a fun setup. I don't know if many of the players are aware of the format. We play a stable for format, so it's a little bit different. It's a point based format. So you get a point for a double bogey, you get two points for a bogey, you get three points for a par, five points for a birdie, eight points for an eagle, and then 12 points for a double eagle. So if you hole out on a par four, you'll get 12 points for it. On one of those risk reward par fours. We really want to, you know, make sure that, you know, from a pace of play standpoint that the kids are picking up once they've gotten to three strokes over par on a hole just to kind of keep the pace up. We've got 118 players this year. This is the largest field we've had in this event.
So pace of play is going to be key. But this format is cool because, you know, it's different than what we all play in high school golf. It allows the good players, really all players to get aggressive on certain holes and think differently throughout, through, through certain holes and think, think differently about their round than they typically do. So it's a, it's a really fun format for the kids.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: I know you mentioned there's a couple holes you're setting up just to set up a risk reward situation.
So I think that's why it's going to be key for everyone to do the practice round so they can kind of play it both ways to see if the risk is worth the reward.
And with this kind of format too is like, you know, what if I go for that eagle or that birdie?
Understand that that could be a one point or two point situation if that doesn't go well right away. So. But that's the best part of it is you don't have to go out and shoot a 67 to win this thing. You have to go out and get the points in order to win it.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: Points. Like, you know, we did a practice round today with another player from Northern Kentucky and her dad and we, you know, one of the girls had a three footer for double bogey, right? And that's a point, right? So what do you do with a three footer when you know, if you miss it, you ain't going to get any points.
So you just got to take all the break out of it, get aggressive, because if you miss it, it's no big deal. But if you make it, you at least get that one point. So that's the, that's the change of mentality you've got to have with Stableford to salvage that one point when you're at that point of the, of the. Of your.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Of the hole.
Let's talk a little bit about the awards. How do you guys do those? And I know we talked about a new idea before we started.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So for awards this year, they're going to do a little bit different this year since we've got so many teams coming in from Indiana.
So what we're going to do is we're going to provide hardware for our top three overall finishers, team wise, and then we're going to provide hardware to our top five individuals overall.
And then on the Kentucky side going to kind of do like a tournament within a tournament. So on the Kentucky side, we'll have our top 12 individual Kentucky only players that will get all state points for the event, and then we'll have our top 12 team Kentucky teams that will get all state points and then they'll get hardware separately for the Kentucky portion of the event that with the Indiana kids pulled out or Indiana teams pulled out.
But overall, if your Indiana teams come down and they, you know, kick us up and down the golf course, they'll take all the hardware. But we're hoping that won't be the case this year.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure we'll probably be charged some sort of tariff when all those awards come back across the border, probably.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: So it's all made out of Kentucky bourbon barrels.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: So yes, if that's the case, then the kids will never see the award.
With all that being said, I know we mentioned a little bit earlier, what's something we should do? Indiana versus Kentucky here.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: What do you think?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: I think it's only fair. With this being kind of a true north and South, I think it's only fair that we kind of determine is it did the north win or did the south win. So I think as you and I discussed, what we'll do is we'll kind of take the top five individual finishers from Indiana, the top five individuals from Kentucky, and we'll total up those points to ultimately decide is it the north or the good people from the South?
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Oh, boy.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: Or whatever kind of rivalry you want to come up with. Is it Rocky versus Drago? Is it you know, I don't know, maybe we save that for the comments of what kind of rivalry this should turn into, what kind of name or moniker, but.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Oh, we can always come up with that.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: So now we've talked a little bit about your guys's event.
I'm not an expert on in Kentucky at all. Talk to me a little bit about Kentucky high school golf, how it might be a little bit different from us because I know up here we have our sectionals, our regionals, then our state. How's golf work down there? And then talk to me about some of your top teams and your top individuals for the state of Kentucky.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, kind of like what we talked about earlier and I'm very curious to learn more about what you all are doing there in Indiana. Because here in Kentucky, individuals only need to play in one 18 hole regular season event to qualify to play in our regional championship.
You play in regionals and if you qualify at regionals, you advance to our KHSAA first round or sub state is what we refer to it as. And if you qualify at a substate, you qualify for the KHSAA finals.
But that, that one event, that's all you need to play in to qualify for regionals.
So it's, you know, I would prefer that we do something a little bit differently kind of what you do there in Indiana. Trent, I really like what the IHSAA does there with having some different requirements to qualify for your sectionals.
From a returning player standpoint in our state we've got some really good talent throughout the state coming in or coming back.
When I take a look at some of our higher ranked players, we've got.
Yeah, so when I look at, you know, some of the higher ranked players in the state of Kentucky that we've got playing this year. Kira Yoon from Sacred Heart Academy here in Louisville. Madison Glisson, who's she plays for Ballard Memorial down at the western part of the state. She's had a phenomenal latter part of the summer this year and has been off to a really good start this early part of the high school season.
Carter Lankford with Lexington Christian.
And then one of the young players who'll be a freshman at Douglas High School in Lexington is Willa Burrow. She just won US Worlds over are down at Pine Needles in North Carolina. So she's a really good talent and it was really neat to see. A couple of weeks ago we have an event in Lexington called the Marion Miley where she as a freshman was playing against college players and upperclassmen in high school and the two time defending Kentucky State Open champion.
And Willa went out there and won the whole event and she's a fantastic talent and so it's really exciting to see that she's staying here in Kentucky to play.
It's really encouraging to see that one of the top two players in the state that's won the state title two years in a row in 22 and 23, Trinity. Beth, who's committed to play at Georgia, she's going to be playing high school golf here her senior year. She didn't play last year, but she's going to be playing this year, has actually won I believe three times this past week in high school invitational. So she's off to a hot start.
And actually just got notification while you and I were doing the prep call that Athena Singh will be playing high school golf this year for Rowan County.
So Athena is a commit to University of Houston and so that should. And she won the KHSAA state tournament last year. So we're going to have potentially the opportunity to see Athena and Trinity go up against each other in the state finals here in Bowling Green in early part of October, which is really exciting.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: And Athena is currently ranked 37th in the world and then Trinity's 180. So that'd be a fun battle to watch.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.
From a team perspective on the girls side, it's going to be a really fun battle to see Madison Central out of Richmond, Kentucky go up against Lexington Christian.
Lexington Christian has a lot of young talent, extremely young talent. They've got an eighth grader, you know, that's going to bring a lot of opportunity for them to win this events this year in Piper Dunn.
But then they've also got some veteran talent in Carter Lankford who's actually a Samford commit down in Birmingham.
But then Madison Central, they're, they've got a lot of veteran leadership. So they're led by Molly Neely and Mackenzie Fetterspiel. So it's a really, really cool thing to see. Both of those have been kind of jockeying back and forth with wins against each other this first part of the week, this early part of the season.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: I do think it's interesting that that's one of the differences between the two states is you have to be a freshman in Indiana to participate on the high school team. And down in Kentucky, is it seventh grade, you can participate.
[00:29:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. It's neat. Well, I'll tell you what's really interesting.
We've got Some phenomenal high school talent. When we look at the leaderboards from high school events just this first week, Parker Haddocks from Lexington Catholic. The seventh grader finishing top eight in events.
It's Emily Miller from Mayfield high school and eighth grader finishing top two top three in events. You know, Piper Dunn, you know, an eighth grader, Lexington Christian, finishing 12 in events. The talent similar to what you all have there in Indiana, down here in Kentucky, it's pretty equal, you know, and I think that's what I ultimately, with this north and south, I want to get to where we can get some of this talent playing against each other in a high school event. You know, I know they play with each other in the summer, in the spring and junior events, they see each other at AJGA events and golf week events and, you know, potentially down the road at the, you know, US Junior Amateur and stuff like that. But seeing them maybe at a high school event where it's fun, maybe a little bit more laid back.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Would be really cool. Especially maybe you know, kind of reigniting this Kentucky Indiana all star type of thing that we did with basketball back in the day.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: They still got it, but nobody watches it anymore.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Let's start watching golf.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. Everyone wants to go their AAU stuff and go that direction. Yeah. Because just like, looking here and trying to see, like, even at both states. But I'll go look at the top high school players in both states. I kind of like what you're saying with your seventh and eighth graders. I look at our freshman class. I mean, we have Maya Fujisawa cooling, and then we have Kennedy Gutierrez, Both ranked at 527 and 529 in the world. And they're both at the PGA Juniors this week. So we got some of that talent coming in. And then even another one that's coming at the rescue. Lemon. And then unfortunately, Charis Reed from Carmel is not playing on Tuesday, and I wish that she was because Charis is one of Those other strong 2029 and former World champion in the drive, chip and putt. So it had been fun to have Carrison at that event as well.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: So with that being said, now your state tournament, you have, I think you said two different states almost, or.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Well, it's a. It's a. So our substate takes. And I've got to remember this because it's goofy. So our sub state. We have three different sub state tournaments. It's basically the first round of the KHSA state tournament.
So it features all Your regional tournament winners and runner ups from a team perspective. And then the top 10 individuals that advance to the substate or first round.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: And then from the first round in those three sub states, they take the top three finishing teams and then the top, I believe, 15 individuals from each substate advance on to the state finals.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: A little bit different than us. You know, what's interesting is we have our sectionals, regionals and state probably a little bit similar, but sectionals, the top three teams and top three individuals get out. Regionals again at the regionals, top three teams, top three individuals make it to state. And then it's a two day event and no cuts. It's a long two days. I'll be the first one to say that those are extremely long two days. But you see some great golf with a lot of great talent. And unfortunately, our state champions not there. Zionsville. As they wanted some extra time off after just getting back from Pinehurst, I thought it'd been fun for them to go up against Sacred Heart again. Yeah, but if both teams aren't going to be at full capacity, it's not as fun for him.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: No, I, you know, it was, it was, it was fun for me. I was down at Pinehurst. I got to follow Sacred Heart while they were down there. I was down there actually for work and, you know, doing some, you know, MBB correspondence.
And it was, it was neat to see that event. It was neat to see Sacred Heart, you know, finish ahead of Zionsville, you know, from a Kentucky perspective. But, you know, they both did fantastic. To your point earlier, you know, I look at it as they both finished three at four, not fourth and fifth. Yeah, that team from Georgia was not really a high school team. I don't know, you know, but there was a lot of really good players at that event.
It was, you know, and they played some tough golf courses there at Pinehurst. I mean, it was, it was a great event.
I, from, from what I gathered down there, the organization, the organizers of the event are trying to make that a bigger event than what it has. I don't think a lot of state champion teams understand what they're trying to do down there. There weren't a lot of representation. There weren't a lot of representatives from other states there. I mean, there was, you know, Texas and Florida and Georgia and Tennessee and North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky, but, you know, it's. It's a really neat event. There were, there were teams that turned down the invite.
It's not something you want to turn Down. It's a really cool opportunity.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: It could probably come down to cost probably for some of these states and some of the schools not realizing what the true cost of that is. And I would say most of those teams that went down there, they all just did it individually because Experience.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: And generally with golf, that's the case. And like you said, it's trying to get everybody to go to that event.
When these kids play so many tournaments over the summer, how do you fit it in?
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. Sacred Heart, I think. I think Kira was coming in from the. Bubba Conley from Memphis. So she missed the first, first day or two of the practice rounds. And then Emma Lindemone, who's graduated, she's going to be heading up to Amherst to play golf. She was, she played in the event. So it was really a great opportunity for her to kind of get one more last go at it with her high school team.
So they were able. And Brooklyn was there playing in the event with Allie Kalin, who's part of their core team this year, and Greer Wathen, who's. Who's going to be a junior this year, who's a really good talent. Hits the ball a mile off the tee. Probably hits the ball with a five iron off the tee further than most guys I've seen. So it's.
It's. She just smashes the ball. But.
So they had a. They had pretty much their whole core team there from what. From who won state last year.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: So that's with us too, with Zionsville is their entire top five is back.
And the interesting thing there will be is they have a freshman coming in, Olivia Patton. She's one of our top five freshmen incoming into the state.
And I think Olivia could give somebody a run for their money to break that top five at a returning state championship team, which is.
Boy, wouldn't that be a great problem to have for any team out there when you have somebody coming in that could take one of your returning players off, which isn't always fun for the players, but for a coach makes life easier when you know you've got depth going into the season.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: So I tell you, Clay, I'm looking forward to Tuesday. I'm hoping for sure that I get down there. I know I'm working on some things in my schedule to make sure that I can and I'm looking forward to it for a lot of reasons. One is to meet you in person, but two is just to see the event. I think it's going to open up our coaches eyes to Maybe doing a different format now and then at some of these tournaments and get those approved by the state because I do like this format that you're doing. I think for some of these tournaments it will make it for a faster pace of play, which is definitely needed. It's going to be interesting to make sure the kids realize if they're in a triple bogey, you can pick up, you can move on. And that may be the hardest thing to remind them of.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the biggest adjustment is, you know, well, and with some of these smaller schools or maybe not, you know, schools that don't have as advanced players is do they know they're on a par four versus a par five and do I pick up at seven versus six? And you know, it's just those are the types of scenarios. But it's a fun format. You know, it makes you think a little bit differently than when you're playing regular stroke play. So, yeah, we look forward to having everybody down here.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: It gives you the opportunity to make some risk and go for it. And if a player makes a mistake on a hole, that's the hole they made a mistake on. They got zero points that hole. Go to the next hole.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: Yeah. It's not wreck your round, right? I mean, you know, I think even last year Brooklyn had a zero. Should took zero points on one hole, but she was still able to win the event. So it's a great way to kind of redeem your round with the way the format's set up.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: How many points did she have last year, do you remember?
[00:38:13] Speaker B: 50. 50 points. So that's kind of the benchmark to remember. So.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: I do look forward to seeing you on Tuesday and watching this event and watching these teams compete from both sides.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Yeah, bring, bring state line here, bring water, bring cooling towels. It's going to be warm. But we do tee off at 8:30 Eastern, so we'll get most of the round in before the heat really sets in. So. Welcome to coming down to Kentucky to hot, humid, fun, you know, nasty weather. But we, we look forward to having everybody down here.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: I'm gonna put on £12 before I get down there so I can lose all 13 of those pounds I gained. So I will see you on Tuesday, Clay.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: You got it. Look forward to it. Thanks.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:39:01] Speaker C: Thanks for listening to this episode of from the Card Path with your host, Trent Roberts. Please be sure to like and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you never miss an episode.
