Area competitions short on girls

Only one female is participating in this summer's series.

Lindsey Riffle didn't play in Thursday's Gateway PGA/Southeast Missouri Junior Series tournament at Dalhousie Golf Club.

If she did, she would have won. By default.

Riffle, from Poplar Bluff, is the only girls player on the series this summer. She plays in the 16- to 19-year-old girls division.

But as junior series director Jack Connell lamented Thursday, what is the incentive to show up when there is no one to compete against.

High schools in the area offer only golf teams for boys, on which girls such as Dexter's Megan Agey must play to compete at the high school level.

Cape Jaycee Municipal Golf Course manager Jason Karnes said the first in his series of summer junior camps recently attracted nine golfers -- all boys.

"Usually, when you see 12- or 13-year-old golfers on the course, it's just boys," Karnes said.

But Connell thinks the region is getting ready to turn the corner.

"Traditionally, there haven't been a lot of girls come out of the [Gateway] section," Connell said. "There's more than there used to be. I think golf is definitely increasing in numbers on the girls side."

He said Dalhousie Golf Club's junior program has eight or nine girls in the 8- to 11-year-old range, not yet old enough to compete on the junior series circuit that requires players to walk and carry their golf bags.

"In our junior program, we have quite a few girls, and I think that's attributable to Karen Stupples," Connell said, making a reference to the ciub's sponsorship of the LPGA touring pro who wore the Dalhousie hat on her way to winning the Women's British Open last year.

Stupples helped kick off the club's junior program in February of 2004.

"Looking to the future," Connell said, "I'd say we have eight or nine girls that are playing in our program and if they hopefully get better and practice more, they'll want to compete on this tour.

"There are probably other girls in other towns, too, but because there's nobody out here playing, they haven't signed up."

Connell said a group of girls in the same age group could also provide the spark to bring girls golf back to the high schools someday.

"It's going to have to be something like a class with four or five girls who ask, 'Why can't they have a team?' And you need another class right behind them to keep it going," Connell said. "Central used to have a team, but that was almost 20 years ago. Even then, they had trouble finding teams to play in the area.

"The great thing about golf is that there are college scholarships out there for girls who want to play, who have the desire to compete."