By the time Jenna Smith walked off the 15th green Wednesday, a round that had felt so safe after nine holes was getting away from her.
The Republic senior shot a 39 on the front nine at Bill and Payne Stewart Golf Course in Springfield, with just one bad hole. Then she opened the back nine with a double bogey, made bogeys on the next three holes and, after a par on 14, made another double bogey on 15.
“By the time I had finished the front nine, I was already in my head (telling myself), ‘It doesn’t matter how you do on the back because you’ve already set yourself up for success,'” Smith said. “And then by the time I got to the back and started playing bad, the stress really got to me, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I might fail because of how poorly I’m doing on the back.'”
Smith said the bad stretch that ended with the double bogey on 15 didn’t come from bad swings so much as bad luck. “Even if the shot is good, you get one bad bounce and you’re in a tree. So that’s kind of what happened,” she said.
Smith walked to the 16th tee and told herself what she tells herself on every tee box. “I kind of just have to remind myself, one shot at a time. It’s not that serious. It’s just golf,” she said.
Her drive on the par-4 16th found the middle of the fairway but didn’t go far, and it left her about 120 yards from a blind pin. She could see the flag, but not the green. Coach Curt Plotner was standing with her.
Smith asked Plotner what she should hit, and he turned the question back around on her. She told him she knew which club she wanted. Then she stood over the ball and changed her mind.
Smith switched clubs and hit an iron straight at the flag, then had to wait on Plotner, who had walked up to the top of the hill to watch it land. He told her the ball bounced right in front of the hole and rolled out to about 10 feet. She made the putt for her only birdie of the day.
After the double bogey on 15, the birdie “really felt good on my ego,” Smith said.
Smith bogeyed the last two holes and finished with an 83. She was 16th on the leaderboard when she came off the course, and she knew that score would send her to state for the third straight year. She wasn’t sure it would get her the other goal she’d set for the day. All-district goes to the top 15, and Smith hadn’t accomplished that in either of her first two trips to state.
Smith didn’t spend the next two hours watching the scoreboard. She walked the course instead, following her teammates and her friends from other schools as they finished their rounds.
“I enjoyed spending my two hours of waiting, walking around, and you know, giving everyone hugs, supporting them,” she said. “It was great. It was a fun time.”
By the time the last scores were in, Smith had moved up into a tie for eighth, and she was all-district for the first time.
Smith said she spent the summer working on her game because she wants to play golf in college. Her best tournament score is an 80 at Marshfield this season. She said the biggest change is in her missed shots, which have gotten consistent enough that they give her a chance to recover.
“In golf, it’s not really about your perfect shots, because no shot is perfect. It’s kind of about controlling your misses,” she said.
The summer tournaments helped her nerves, too. “I was shaking on the tee box off the first tee just because I felt so nervous, like, ‘Oh no, where’s this shot gonna go?'” Smith said. “But the summer tournaments that I played in definitely helped, and then throughout the season, I feel like my nerves have just calmed down more and more and more.”
The Class 4 state tournament is Oct. 19-20 at Rivercut Golf Course in Springfield, where Smith finished 57th as a sophomore.
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