By Mark Schmetzer
Sandy Stuckert and her Wetherington Golf & Country Club teammates were surprised to be recognized as winners of this year’s High Kent Low Gross tournament at Oasis Golf Club.
Why?
“We were originally announced as the second-place Low Net winners,” Stuckert, the team captain, said. “We actually went up for them to present us the Low Net awards. Then they went back and said, ‘Oh, wait, you won first-place gross.’”
Stuckert and teammates Mary Blake, Donna Harpsoe and Kathleen Johns knocked off the defending High Kent Low Gross championship TPC River’s Bend team of Julie Thompson, Bevely Olinger, Renetta Morem and Ann Delahanty-Koenig to win gift certificates to the Oasis pro shop and glass etched paperweights commemorating the accomplishment.
The Low Net portion of the event turned into a competition between two Kenwood Country Club teams. The team captained by Debbie Lach and including Diane Herndon, Katie Robertson and Joan Roehr surpassed the team including Karen Helm, Beth Wright, Barb Goila and Ginger Lippmeier-Suarez to win.
The awards ceremony mixup wasn’t the only reason Stuckert and her crew were pleasantly surprised.
“None of us has a particularly low handicap, so to win the Gross was a surprise to us,” she said. “It was exciting. We just went out and played our own game, enjoyed the game and the company and had fun.
“To be honest, we ham-and-egged it,” she added. “It wasn’t like anybody tore the course up. We all played pretty well. I want to say that, taking in our handicaps, we all came in right around our handicaps.”
Stuckert had an early inclination that her team was in for a good day.
“It was a beautiful day,” she said. “It was a really pretty day. I think it was hot. There’s one hole at Oasis where it’s like an island green. It’s not really an island, but you have to hit over water. It’s everyone’s least-favorite hole. I thought we were going to start with that hole, but it was the second hole, and we all did really well. That set the tone for the rest of the day.”