Girl's golf, full swing ahead

This spring, Blair's girls have come out swinging—golf clubs, that is.

Coached by Peter Creedon, a substitute teacher and fall boys' golf coach, the girls' developmental golf team has approximately 20 girls on its mailing list. Creedon estimates that six to ten girls regularly attend the team's sessions. Creedon started the team earlier in the year.

The girls, who are not officially an interscholastic athletic team but are instead a club, do not play competatively. They meet twice a week to learn about golf and work on skills, often travelling to public driving ranges and swinging as a group.

Junior Nardos Bellete joined the team to pursue her interest in the sport. "I thought it would be really cool to actually play the real sport and not just Putt-Putt," says Bellete.

The new team not only gives girls like Bellete an opportunity to improve their golfing technique, but it also enables them to participate for free in a sport where equipment can be quite expensive. "Some girls have their own clubs, but most of us use the school equipment," says Bellete.

For many of the girls, golfing is a new experience, and Creedon is focusing on the basics of the game. "[The team] is learning about hitting the ball and the dynamics of a golf course," Creedon says.

Creedon says that most of the team is inexperienced and that all girls are welcome to attend the team's meetings at 3:00 in room 117 every Monday and Friday.