The varsity girls golf team had transportation issues for their regional and sectional matches this fall because of complications with the buses. A bus with mechanical issues and a bus that did not show up contributed to a lack of warm-up time for the team, possibly causing underperformance and the team’s early departure from the State tournament.

This year is the first in the last five that the entire golf team hasn’t qualified for State Championships. The team was disappointed with their season this year as they felt they did not have complete control over their own success because of transportation difficulties. Junior and co-captain of the team Maggie Zeiger said, “It definitely threw off our pre-round routine. Only [junior and co-captain] Ellery Axel and I were able to warm up, and the rest of our teammates had earlier tee times and were forced to go right from the bus to the tee.”

Maggie wasn’t the only player affected by not having a reliable bus. Ellery said, “We showed up the morning of regionals to find out that the bus wasn’t ordered and was 45 minutes away, so that added stress. We had to factor in how much warmup time we would miss and how fast we would have to get ready.”

The lack of a bus not only meant that the team was close to missing their tee times, but it created a sense of stress and uneasiness, one that team members said heavily affected some of the team’s younger, less experienced golfers. Some members of the team had no warm-up time at all.

These transportation difficulties, however, were not the fault of Latin’s Athletics Department. “They had a bus for their sectional match,” Assistant Director of Athletics Kathy Presberg said. “However, the bus had mechanical issues, which is the fault of the company.”

A similar situation occurred with the regional match when the company forgot to send the bus. While some smaller Latin teams, such as chess or boys golf, do elect to take other transportation to events, according to Ms. Presberg, “[Teams] want to take their own bus.” And if the team is small enough, they “can choose their own method of transportation.” This was not applicable to the golf team because they needed a bus due to the heavy load of equipment.

The lack of transportation has led some golf team members to believe that some sports teams are not prioritized at Latin the way they should be. Maggie said, “Most sports, not just girls golf, are undervalued at Latin.”

Further, senior and co-captain Lizzie Lucas said, “It seems like nobody cares about golf even though we spend the most time [practicing] out of all teams, and we have been to State the past five years.”