by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Macy Senn can still remember vividly her first golf clubs – three short little ones tucked into a tiny bag.
As a toddler, she loved those clubs and would spend hours hitting a little plastic golf ball around her yard, pretending she was on a great big wide green golf course.
Years later, she’s still hitting golf balls on courses throughout the state. And winning games. Senn, the 17-year-old daughter of Holly and Rick Senn, is one of the finest Sartell High School golfers on the varsity team. She’s been the team captain for two years, was named the most valuable player for two years and was nominated last year for the All-Area Golf Team. Senn’s score in every meet has been used to calculate the team total for each meet, a solid achievement considering Senn has participated in about 60 meets in the past four years and never missed even one meet. In varsity golf, the scores of the four individual players who do best per team at a meet are added together to constitute that team’s score. That means Senn has been consistently excellent, time after time, in four consecutive varsity golf seasons.
Senn and the team were very proud last year when they took second in the Central Lakes Area Conference tournament.
“It was a huge accomplishment,” she said. “That’s the first time that happened. Usually, the team would take third or fourth.”
There are six members on the varsity tournament team, but the members can rotate throughout the season, Senn noted. There are eight girls’ golf teams in the conference, but as many as 15 teams compete at invitationals and the section tournament.
Senn and her teammates play in about a dozen meets each golfing season.
Last year, Senn missed a big chance at the play-offs to go to the state tournament by one shot. It was on the number-10 hole at the Graystone Golf Course in Sauk Centre. It was a hole where she had birdied and so she had to re-play it, missing the crucial shot. Naturally, she’s hoping she and her team will win the conference this year and get to go to state.
“I always look forward to spring so I can golf,” Senn said. “It’s so much fun to spend an afternoon or evening on a (golf) course. And it’s good to be part of the varsity team because it allows me to play on so many courses.”
Senn has spent many an hour practicing, like her teammates do, at Blackberry Ridge Golf Course in Sartell.
“I’ve been golfing in school since I was in eighth grade,” she noted. “What I love about golf is that it’s an individual sport but also a team one. I set my own goals, but it’s also good to golf for the benefit of the team, as well.”
Senn credits her father, Rick, for her golfing skills.
“He really influenced me,” she said. “He always loved to golf and gave me so many good tips and help. We golfed a lot together.”
Senn’s sister, Ivy, an eighth-grader, is also an avid golfer as a member of the junior varsity team.
The only draw-back to the sport of golf, Senn said, is it can easily cause one to become sunburned.
“I do wear a hat, but golfers really soak up a lot of sun,” she noted.
Another drawback, though a somewhat minor one, is she used to feel a bit unsettled and nervous when spectators on the course would be watching her every shot in the hushed, whispery silence on a golf course.
“No, I didn’t like people watching me, but now I’ve gotten used to it,” she said.
Did Senn ever hit a hole-in-one?
“No,” she said, pausing, then adding with a rippling chuckle: “Not yet, anyway.”
Senn does not carry any good-luck charms when golfing.
“I do have a thing about Sharpies, though,” she said, laughing. “When filling out score cards, I never ever use a pencil. It has to be a Sharpie, and I always choose a new color of Sharpie at each meet.”
Senn’s favorite school subject is psychology. She will carry her love of golf with her when she attends college next fall at Gustavus Adolphus, where she will major in nursing and, naturally, play on the college golf team.
Roster
The Sartell girls’ golf varsity roster as posted on the website of the Minnesota State High School League is comprised of seniors Bailey Offerdahl, Bethany Bierscheid, Emily Myskewitz and Macy Senn; junior Molly Fossen; and sophomores Kelli Loscheider and Kristin Martens.
Its head coach is Paul Determan. Abby Legatt and Marty Anderson are assistant coaches.
Macy Senn
