Bell, Bray lead young Notre Dame girls golf team

Notre Dame junior Zoe Schumer hit from the far end of the driving range with mixed results Tuesday afternoon at Dalhousie Golf Club.

Her drives traveled fairly straight and long, impressive for a teenage girl who had just taken up the sport, but her iron shots were proving a little harder to tame.

After squibbing a couple out onto the range, she made the declaration to an on-looker, "I'm not a Sarah Bell."

That person, Sarah Bell, was positioned just to the left of Schumer. And Bell, who finished third in the Missouri Class 1 state tournament last year as a freshman, was drilling crisp iron shots that were as beautiful as the sunny, 80-degree day. They took off at a low, piercing trajectory before peaking in the sky and dropping back to earth.

On the other end of the range was fellow sophomore Allison Bray, who finished eighth in last year's state tournament. She was displaying the form that helped her shoot a 1-under-par 34 a day earlier in a season-opening, three-team meet at Union County Country Club Country in Anna, Illinois.

It would be easy for Schumer, one of eight girls on the team and one of two with have no previous golf experience, to feel out of place. But she's quite comfortable in their company.

"Even if I'm not playing that day and if I'm not in the competition, I'll just ride around and watch her and Allison," Schumer said. "Just by watching them teaches all of us so much. I think I'm speaking for everybody when I say they're the encouragers on the team. They'll offer to give pointers and try to make everybody better. It's cool."

Sarah Bell hits a fairway shot to the seventh hole for the Notre Dame girls golf team Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014 at Dalhousie Golf Club. (Fred Lynch)

Notre Dame coach Jerry Grim realizes he has quite the dynamic duo in Bell and Bray, who both have spent their summer getting tournament tested.

When asked if the two players are the best in the brief five-year history of the program, Grim, who has had other state qualifiers, quickly responded, "Definitely."

After stellar freshman seasons, Bell and Bray both say their games have improved after playing in about 15 tournaments over the summer, some against national competition.

As for Grim, he doesn't see much difference.

"They already were that good," he said.

Bell claimed the Peg Ludlow Junior Trophy, which goes to the low junior at the Missouri Women's Golf Association's Amateur Championship, with rounds of 77, 77 and 76 at the Country Club of St. Albans.

"It was a big honor for me," Bell said.

But even in triumph, she saw plenty of room for improvement.

"I just made like dumb mistakes," Bell said. "If I wouldn't made those, I probably would have shot like even for the three days."

Her summer also included winning the Missouri Golf Association's Junior Match Play Championship at Rivercut Golf Course in Springfield, Missouri, the site of last year's Class 1 state tournament.

Notre Dame's Allison Bray records her score after the sixth hole Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014 at Dalhousie Golf Club. (Fred Lynch)

In claiming the crown, Bell defeated the reigning high school state champion, Ashley Childers of Mount Vernon, Missouri, nearly holing out on a par 3 to secure the win on the final hole. She later rallied from 2-down with three holes to play in the championship match to defeat Emma Solovic of Imperial, Missouri.

"That was a big tournament for me," Bell said.

She traveled extensively, competing in four AJGA tournaments, which is the premier national -- and international -- stage for junior golf.

"Last year I was kind of shooting the same as this year, but I was a lot more consistent this year," Bell said. "I was going from 70s to 80s, and now I'm staying consistent low 70s."

About her summer play, she said, "It makes me feel a lot more confident."

Bray also had a confidence-building summer, winning two tournaments at Dalhousie, her and Bell's home course.

She won the AGT event at Dalhousie, posting a 14-stroke victory in the high school division. It was the second consecutive year she won the event after edging Bell by a stroke in 2014.

Bray also won the Big I National Championship qualifier, which was rewarded with exposure to national competition at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas.

She says her ability to get up and down around the green, as well as her distance, improved over the summer.

"I think I've improved a lot," Bray said. "Hopefully it shows."

Both Bell and Bray said they have been playing golf since around the age of 5.

"I had plastic clubs when I was 2," Bray said.

Their experience stands in stark contrast to the likes of Schumer.

"When we go out and play out here, sometimes I'll send them out with some of the other players, and they can help them through different things," Grim said. "They help out quite a bit."

The two sophomores, who have played against each other competitively since age 8, embrace the role, hoping to build up the team's overall skills for a successful season.

Both help Grim and assistant coach Emily (Matthews) Obergoenner, a 2008 Notre Dame graduate who played on the boys team before playing four years at Missouri State.

"Kind of trying to be a leader and showing them what's going on," Bray said about her role. "Try to get them to like golf."

Grim has no worries about his top two scores in competition, but he hopes the other six players can produce two scores good enough to help the Bulldogs find their way to the state tournament as a team for the first time in school history.

Bell and Bray were accompanied by then-senior Mattie Beussink last year, and they would like to have more company this time around.

"My goal this season is to get the whole entire team to go to state," Bell said. "That would be amazing. I would love that. Of course, I've got really good coaches that can help. It would be awesome for Allison and I if we both shot under par almost every single time we stepped on the course. It would be amazing, and with all the other girls improving, it would be a pretty strong team. That's my goal for the season."

Seniors Taylor Ivy and Ashlee Young both played varsity and JV last season and are the likely candidates to round out the four scores used in competition. Sophomore Olivia Schloss played on the JV last year, and other newcomers besides Schumer include freshmen Addie Grim and Sarah Smith.

It's the smallest team that Grim has fielded in his five years, but it's still the only program in the area.

The Bulldogs' closest opponents in Missouri are Ste. Genevieve and Farmington, while they often trek to Illinois to find female competition.

"I'd love to see the other schools take it up, but I don't know ... apparently there's not that much interest there, but I can not believe that," Grim said. "If there is [interest] at our school, there's got to be at some of these bigger schools."

His star players also would welcome new competition.

"I would love for Cape and Jackson to have a girls team," Bell said. "I would love that. I guess girls aren't just interested in it, but that would be amazing. We wouldn't have to travel to St. Louis or Illinois, we could just stay here at our home course or go to somewhere in this region. That would be fun."

Added Bray, "That would be cool to play other local schools, but I don't mind all the traveling. That's kind of fun, too."