Park City High School head golf coach George Murphy is ready to get the Lady Miners’ golf team over the hump.
Over the last three seasons, Park City has finished second, third and second at the 3A state tournament. Murphy said this year’s team, while lacking significant star power, has the ability to make some noise later on in the season.
“We’re working on getting our team competitive enough to challenge Desert Hills down south,” he said. “To do that, we’re trying to get our girls to shoot low-to-mid 80s every time out.”
Park City is led by seven seniors in Abby Cohen, Cierra Perry, Lexie Malone, Kendall Blake, Ashton Strauss, Yoojung Kim and Natalie Stevens. The remaining roster is: juniors Kylee Minardi and Bailey Tibbitts, sophomores E.J. Elliott, Becca Lords and Sage Wegner, and freshmen Catherine Cunningham and Maggie Hale.
Murphy said while this year’s roster is fairly large (15 members), he thinks the togetherness of the club will prove vital in the coming years.
“Hopefully we can pull through this year,” he said. “We have some good seniors leading the team this year. We have some depth to our team. But they’ve got to get that mentality of shooting mid-80s that’s the goal we can get.”
So far this season, the Lady Miners have had two region tournaments. On March 24 at Mountain View Golf Course, Park City bested region rival Carbon by three strokes in the season’s first official match. Cohen led the way for Park City with a 48 in the nine-hole event.
The second match of the season saw the Lady Miners slip behind Carbon on April 5 at Price Municipal Golf Course. Cohen led the way again, shooting a 44 in the nine-hole event, which left her tied for the top spot. Fellow seniors Perry and Malone shot 45 and 50, respectively.
Murphy said unlike the fall season, when he coaches the Park City boys’ golf team, spring is a struggle due to the snowfall in Park City.
“It’s a different feel to it,” said Murphy. “The seasons are just like night and day. The fall season, everything just seems to fall into place. And we get to girls golf, and we don’t even see Park City Golf Course all season.”
Park City’s head coach said this year Region 10 play will be much the same it has been in the first two tournaments the Miners and Dinos neck-and-neck throughout the season. Fellow region teams Wasatch and Union expect to be in a fight for third place.
When asked where he expects to finish, he said, “Hopefully first, but it looks pretty tight. It looks like it’ll be a back and forth between those two teams.”
Murphy said coaching the girls’ team gives him a little more fulfillment due to their ability to listen to coaching instruction and receive input so well.
“I like the fact that the girls are not as tough on themselves,” he said. “A couple are, but for the most part, the girls are good-natured and out there to enjoy the game. They don’t get too down on themselves. If they have a bad shot, they move on to the next shot.
“I get a little more satisfaction out of seeing them progress. It is fun. We’ve got a great group this year.”
When girls’ golf was made an official high school sport in Utah four years ago, this year’s seniors were freshmen. They’re now the first to play all four years at Park City. Murphy, who has coached the team since the sport’s inception, said he is looking forward to seeing how the season can end.
Park City’s next tournament is April 21 in Roosevelt.