By Mark Schmetzer

Cyndi Capano and Katie Yannucci sort of ventured out of their comfort zones when they joined Renetta Morrem and Celina Gronau in representing TPC River’s Bend at the Greater Cincinnati Women’s Golf Association High Kent Tournament at Terrace Park Country Club in July.

“This was my first time,” Capano said. “This was the first time for the two of us playing in Greater Cincinnati golf events. I’m usually just a club player. I don’t usually venture out of the box.”

Call it beginner’s luck. The TPC team captured the High Kent Low Gross championship with a combined score of 173 at the annual event.

The Triple Crown Country Club team of Cindy Frederick, Jane Taylor, Kendall Reynolds and Ruth Ann Weiss won the High Kent Low Net title with a combined 121, eight strokes ahead of the Capano team score of 129.

As the teams wrapped up their rounds, the TPC crew entertained outside notions that they might’ve had a shot at the Net title, but they were more than willing to accept the Gross championship.

“Celina and Renetta won the Net a couple of years back,” said Capano, who has played in tournaments away from home, such as on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. “Celina put the team together. We were just having fun. We thought there was no way we won. We didn’t think we had a chance. We really didn’t think we’d played that well.

“We were surprised when they called our names. We actually thought our Net was better than that. When they handed out the trophies for the Net, we said, ‘Well, I guess we didn’t get it,’ and we seriously chuckled.”

The High Kent and its counterpart, the Low Kent, were created in the mid-1950s in honor of Mrs. Sydney B. Kent, a long-time Cincinnati Country Club and Women’s Western Golf Association board member who maintained in her life a keen interest in teaching ethics, courtesies and rules of the game to junior golfers. The tournament originally was a net best-ball foursome before evolving into flighted events at two different courses with gross and net prizes.

Group effort was the key to the TPC team’s win, Capano said.

“One person played a hole perfectly and the another one followed,” she said. “Renetta made a 40-foot putt that was crazy for a two-stroke eagle.”