McCollum's Column: Reflections on a strange, season-ending tourney

Tuesday night, St. Joseph’s Brooke Enderlin played a routine, nonconference basketball game against Scranton.

Twelve hours later, she was loosening up for the state Overall golf tournament at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock.

“It’s not too bad because we get up early for basketball conditioning every morning,” she said. “It’s weird because we played state a month ago.”

The tournament, featuring the top girls golfers in the state in all classifications, was delayed for three weeks because of wet conditions on the PVCC course. 

“Because of the rain, I’ve practiced maybe three times since state,” Enderlin said.

She was hardly alone in either scheduling or practice times. Most of the girls had not practiced much more than three days because of the weather and several of them were coming off basketball games the night before, some of them getting home after midnight.

“I wasn’t sore at all when I started playing,” Enderlin said. “Everything was fine.”

She fired an 85, a very good round for her and one that earned her sixth place.

“My goal was to break 90,” she said. “I felt good.”

But it was a weird situation and a weird setting on a course in which green grass covered muddy spots in a brilliant background of fall leaves.

The entrance to the clubhouse, with straw, hay bales and pumpkins, reflected the season.

Championship golf after Halloween? Playing golf with spectators chatting about deer season and the Thanksgiving holiday?

Weird.

A major focus naturally was on Conway’s Summar Roachell, who won the Overall title as a freshman — but not with ease. She posted a shaky 79 and held on as her fellow competitors came close, had their chances but fell short.

Roachell took the waiting game in stride.

One minute, she was eating lunch with friends and fellow competitors. The next minute, she was summoned to the course to prepare for a possible playoff for the top spot. She quickly grabbed a putter, a few balls and went to the putting green. When the playoff didn’t happen, she jumped in a cart with some friends and watched the playoff for second place.

She’s an outstanding competitor. But she is also a great teammate. That was reflected with how many of her teammates came out to cheer her on or to text encouraging words.

It was an interesting year for Conway golf with Roachell becoming the top player, naturally the leader, as a freshman.

“But it has never been about Summar,” said Conway coach Janet Taylor, whose girls posted a runner-up finish in 7A. “She was all about team. She was always encouraging her teammates. If she hadn’t been like she is, we would have not had the success we had.”

The Conway golf tradition has a strong bond.

During the tournament, Taylor was texting back and forth with Mary Michael Maggio, Conway’s premier golfer last season. Maggio, a golfer at LSU, is recovering from shoulder surgery that cut short her fall campaign. Following Roachell via cyberspace was apparently good therapy for her. 

Possibly the weirdest aspect of the whole situation was the tournament was postponed three weeks — rescheduled at a random available date — and the golfers played under some of the best and most beautiful weather conditions of the entire season.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)