CASTLE ROCK — The two luckiest golf fans in Colorado were running on fumes by the beginning of the back nine. By the 18th hole, there were no fumes left.
“It’s different than watching it on TV,” Sofia Cary said, climbing the fairway toward the finish line at Castle Pines with her friend, Molly Schatz. Between them and their view of the clubhouse at the top of the hill was a sight that still seemed surreal, even after a few hours: the top-ranked golfer on the planet. Just a few yards ahead.
This is the joy of live sports, of course, even without a VIP pass. The talent, the craft, the intensity of a world-class athlete — it’s all easier to appreciate in person than it is via screen, depending on the view. So what was it that struck Cary and Schatz while witnessing Scottie Scheffler attack a golf course up close? The concentrated power of his tee shots? The precision of his putts? The sound off the club?
“Just all the walking,” Cary said. “I’m on JV. So I’m not used to doing 18 holes. Molly’s used to it.”
“No,” retorted Schatz (varsity). “This is really long.”
But rewarding, make no mistake. These two Lewis-Palmer High School juniors were shadows to Scheffler and Adam Hadwin during the third round of the BMW Championship on Saturday, thanks to a fortuitous phone call.
Kelly Hodge is a longtime LPGA teaching professional in the Colorado Springs area, coaching at Coronado High School and operating a club that attracts 40 to 50 girls every summer Wednesday. In the lead-up to the tournament, LPGA sponsor Chevron contacted her, asking if she had any pupils who would want to walk the course inside the ropes for a day.
“It was a huge deal,” Hodge said. “This doesn’t happen. It’s amazing. They donated $5,000 to my girls club so I could help girls that can’t afford to play. So now I’ve gotta go look for more girls.”
Four high schoolers had the red carpet rolled out Saturday to walk the course in pairs, including Schatz, who represents a full-circle moment for Hodge’s 30-year career fostering the local growth of girls golf. Schatz’s mother was one of her first students in Colorado Springs years ago. The two are friends now, and Hodge is Molly Schatz’s private instructor.
Molly has played for three years now, encouraged by her mom. She quickly developed an appreciation for the sport because of the friends it has introduced to her life. Cary is somewhat the opposite. She joined the high school team so that she could spend more time with her friends, and in the process learned that golf is “a very underrated sport.” When this opportunity came along?
“They couldn’t even sleep last night,” Hodge said.
Their excitement went in a blender and emerged as nervousness once Hadwin shook their hands at the start of the round. Once they were out on the course. Out in the open. The center of attention. Every teenager’s nightmare, more or less.
“It’s definitely awkward just being in the middle of a field,” Cary said, laughing.
The golf and the scenery were distracting enough to ease those nerves eventually. Not to mention the walking. Even Scheffler himself has commented on altitude being a challenge he has struggled to overcome in the past. He didn’t play his best round Saturday, shooting a 74 (2-over par). At 8,130 yards, Castle Pines is the longest course in PGA Tour history. Not quite the same stratosphere as the nine-hole JV rounds Cary is used to playing. Those will feel like nothing from now on.
“It’s been a really cool experience,” Schatz said.
One that will resonate even more with time, as one spectator preached to the girls from the other side of the rope during the 17th hole. In the short-term perspective of a high schooler, Saturday was “fun to hang out with friends and see some famous people,” Cary said.
In the long term?
“This will be just a lifetime memory for these girls,” Hodge said. “Who gets to do anything like this?”
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