[Intro]
Lily Kate Witcher: Hi, my name is Lily Kate Witcher, and I am the assistant editor-in-chief of the Northwood Omniscient. In this podcast, I will be interviewing Lily Jordan: a junior member of the golf team who has won several awards for golf at the high school level. Lily Jordan is the first student that will be interviewed in the Omniscient’s new athlete series. Similar to the previous Northwood Artist series, these podcasts will highlight some of the many talented students we have at Northwood who are involved in the athletics program.
Lily Kate Witcher: How long have you been playing golf and what made you start?
Lily Jordan: So I’ve been playing golf for about four years now. I would say my dad is the main factor in why I became interested in playing golf. Seeing him have a lot of fun in charity tournaments really inspired me to not only want to have an impact on my community, but also to improve my skills in a sport that I love. Golf is a sport that you can play from [when] you’re 16 to [when] you’re 64, and I think that’s one of the things that makes it so special.
Lily Kate Witcher: How has this year’s golf season been going?
Lily Jordan: As a team, I really believe that we’ve done a good job this season. As a new conference, there’s different atmospheres and different people, and I think our team has done a really great job of adapting to that. In most of our tournaments we have ranked in the top three, and in this past one at Indian Valley, we came in first which is really exciting. So I’m really excited to see how the team does in the future and to build better relationships with the girls on the team. As an individual, I think something I’ve struggled with is my confidence, and that has impacted how I play. I’m trying to work on getting my swing straighter and better course management, and that’s just something that takes time. Overall, the team is what’s most important for high school golf, and I think that so far, we’re doing a really great job with that.
Lily Kate Witcher: Do you also play golf outside of school?
Lily Jordan: Outside of high school golf, I’ve had the opportunity to play in other junior golf tours. Some of them include Peggy Kirk Bell, TYGA and CGA, which is the Carolina Golf Association. These tournaments have really helped me with my high school golf game and also just improving who I am as a person. Being in these tournaments are very humbling, just knowing that there’s always going to be someone who’s better than you. And it’s taught me about dedication and confidence and knowing that there’s always going to be bad shots, but it’s how you react to the next one that really [impacts you] the most.
Lily Kate Witcher: What kind of achievements or awards have you received from playing golf?
Lily Jordan: Most of my awards come from high school golf. Some of them include MVP and Co-Player of the Year, also with a person from East Chapel Hill. Last season I made it to the State Championships and tied for third there.
Lily Kate Witcher: How did the pandemic affect your ability to practice and compete?
Lily Jordan: Personally, I would say that COVID impacted the tournament aspect of golf other than the practice aspect. A lot of tournament tours limited the number of spectators or the amount of tournaments they provided. Golf courses, I feel like kind of revved up during COVID. You’d see more people on the golf course and more people on the range, so that aspect I think definitely fluctuated over time, but the tournaments definitely declined during COVID.
Lily Kate Witcher: Are you planning to play golf in the future?
Lily Jordan: I am planning on playing college golf. That is something that’s not always concrete with offers and communication with college coaches, but it is something I’m definitely interested in considering it has a lot of great opportunities from relationships with players and coaches and being able to travel to amazing golf courses. But there’s also some challenges that come with that that I’m taking time to weigh. But yeah, I’m really excited for the future and hopefully golf will be something that I can take with me to college.
Lily Kate Witcher: What can the student body do to support the golf team?
Lily Jordan: Golf isn’t a sport that you can sit in the stands and watch like football, or baseball or basketball. I would say one thing that the student body could do to support the team would just be to respect the fact that we put in a lot of our time and effort into a sport that we love. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how golf isn’t a sport, and people are entitled to their own beliefs, but just know that when you’re saying that something is not a sport to someone who puts their time and energy into something, how it can really impact how they feel. A lot of girls on the team and a lot in just in general women golfers spend a lot of their time and effort and dedicate [themselves] to the sport. So by saying that golf isn’t a sport, or, you know, it’s less intense than football – it may not be a contact sport – but that doesn’t mean that the athleticism and dedication is not there.
Lily Kate Witcher: Thanks for listening to this podcast on junior golfer Lily Jordan. If you enjoyed this podcast, stay tuned for the next one that will be coming in this new series. For more content from our student staff, check out nhsomniscient.com
