Looking for another strong season after finishing fourth place in state last year, the Manhattan High girls golf teed off with their first tournament at the Shawnee Heights Invitational.

With nerves flowing and butterflies in their stomachs, the girls still seemed to perform well.

“We got second,” junior Lydia Fry said.

Luckily the weather cleared before the girls played but with wet grass and muddy fairways they still faced some adversity. However, with the bad weather before the tournament, the lift, clean and replace rule came into play. This rule allows the girls to pick up the ball and clean it if they were to have a bad shot. This allowed for them to put the ball on top of the grass rather than have the ball buried in the grass, which makes it easier to hit.

“It actually helped because we were able to do a lift, clean and replace,” Fry said, “which if you have a really bad lie you can lift the ball and clean it, which helped because you could lay the ball on top of the grass instead of buried.”

Although the girls did not finish in first place, second place is a good finish. It leaves plenty of room for improvement while also providing some confidence in their abilities.

“We can be proud of our first tournament and how we all performed but I know that there is room for improvement throughout the season.” sophomore Camy McAtee said.

Practice makes perfect and we can be sure the girls will improve and be ready for their next tournament Sept. 6 in Salina.