Golf

LIBERTY - Derek Murphy loves golf. And he likes playing it competitively even more, so the Casey County senior is heading to Lindsey Wilson College to continue his golf career next year. "I felt if I just went on to school and not play (for the school) I wouldn't be happy," he said. "I'd rather play competitively than go out and play for the fun. " Murphy said he began hearing from the school toward the end of his senior season. So he visited last month and was invited to join the team then by coach Chris Starks.

When Lilli Hiljeback decides to go after a birdie, it might not necessarily be on the golf course. While she's become a member of the Boyle County golf team since arriving from Stockholm, Sweden, in mid-August, she's also an enthusiastic hunter who has had the opportunity to go dove hunting this month. "I have been watching my dad hunt for about nine or 10 years. I got my own hunting license this spring. I haven't been hunting that much at home. My dad hunts deer and elk. They are a lot bigger than the doves I got here," she said.

The Boyle County girls won their final regular-season match Thursday, beating Pulaski County and Southwestern at Old Bridge Golf Club. Kelsey Joslyn shot 38 to lead Boyle, which had a team score of 188 that was seven strokes below Pulaski and 27 below Southwestern. Boys Marion County 159, Garrard County 169, East Jessamine 172, Campbellsville 179 - At Stanford, Marion won a four-team match at Dix River Country Club hosted by Garrard, which finished the regular season 15-7-1.

Two strokes had cost Kelli Warner two titles at the Tee Cup Invitational, and she wasn't about to let it happen a third time. After finishing runner-up the past two years, the Eastern Kentucky University junior fired an even-par 73 Thursday to finish with a 2-under 144 total and claimed her first Tee Cup title at the Danville Country Club. "I've just been so close that last couple of years. It's just a lot of weight off. It was definitely time (to win)," said Warner, a Casey County native.

The economy may have an effect on many aspects of people's lives, but it hasn't kept golfers way from the Tee Cup Invitational. The tournament, which begins Wednesday at Danville Country Club, has a record 102 entries. "It's great. We were pleasantly surprised, especially with the economy the way it is," said Jennifer Osborne, who is serving as tournament chairperson for the first time. "Golf is a luxury people enjoy, but I think we've had a good reputation in putting on a pretty good tournament, and that's why people keep coming back.

STANFORD - Three strokes. That doesn't sound like much, but it's everything to Jordan Hogue. All of the practice, all of the individual work that Hogue has put in through the spring and summer is designed to shave three strokes off his game by Sept. 25. That's the date of the 5th Region Tournament at Dix River Country Club here, and three strokes is all that has separated the Lincoln County golfer from a state qualifying berth in that tournament in each of the last two years.

If you were not impressed by what Stanford's Jessica Cornelius did in the Women's Kentucky State Amateur Championship last week, you should have been. Making the championship match for any golfer is an incredible feat. For a 50-year-old player to do it is almost unbelievable. If her age isn't enough, consider that she took three years off to go back to school and often had no time to touch a golf club during that span. Yet just as she did in 1984 when she won the championship and again 12 years ago when she finished second, Cornelius battled her way to the title match in a tournament that has been dominated by young rising stars in recent years.

The first time Taylor Begley knew he had a problem with his eyesight came when he had a golf club in his hand. Only it was a plastic children's club, not a real golf club like the ones he spent much of the summer swinging. "My parents tell me the first time I knew I couldn't see real well was when I was at my uncle's house and they had a set of plastic golf clubs. I was bending down real close to the ball because I couldn't see it, " Begley said. "That was the first indication I needed glasses.

Dawn is coming earlier now, dusk a little later, the best signs, for me, that spring is here and summer is near. Even though the sun hasn't been out much over the last couple of weeks, you can still tell the days are longer, the breezes warmer. Spring has always reminded me of the home of my youth, and I yearn briefly for concrete and asphalt and parks, for the river instead of the lake. It was refreshing on a recent warm-weather visit to Louisville to walk down the riverbank, refreshing even to run back, to watch a couple row by in a kayak, the rising sun in the background.

West Jessamine High School's girl's golf team began its season with a win over defending state champion Central Hardin at Monday's Christian Academy of Louisville Invitational Tournament. "It was really exciting," said junior Betsie Johnson. "We all played OK. I don't think anybody was completely thrilled with their score, but we played well. I think we feel more confident now that we have kind of killed Central Hardin. " West scored 305 followed by Sacred Heart Academy's 314, CAL's 333 and Central Hardin's 334. West senior Ashlee Rose won the tournament, recording a 71. West's Emily Haas and Johnson tied for sixth with a pair of 76s. Sloane Skinner and Grace Rose rounded out West's total with an 82 and 100, respectively.