Matthews plays among the boys at Notre Dame

Notre Dame senior Emily Matthews practices golf any place possible — the driving range, the putting green, the golf course and even in her bedroom.

"I set up a trash can in my room, and I'll chip ping pong balls into the trash can," Matthews said. "I moved my furniture around so I could have a longer way to chip."

Golf quickly has become a big part of Matthews' life over the past two years — ever since she was cut from the Notre Dame boys golf team as a sophomore.

She admitted that she was not too serious about the game when she tried out during the spring of her sophomore year. She had been to the driving range a few times and hardly had played much golf. She went out for the program partly because she likes trying new activities.

When she learned she had failed to make the cut, that's when she became serious about the game. She started practicing at the driving range, working with a swing coach, entering tournaments and practicing her short game in her bedroom.

"I'm such a competitive person," Matthews said. "I was mad. I was angry. But from [Notre Dame] coach [Jerry] Grim's standpoint, it was understandable. But it made me want to go out and work every single day to get better because I don't like to be cut down. I don't like not to be the best I can be."

The work she has put in over the past two years is beginning to pay off. She made the boys team one year later as a junior, spending time on both the varsity and junior varsity. And she is again a member of the program this season, playing for the varsity. She's posted a 44.3 average score per nine holes.

Notre Dame's Emily Matthews teed off on the first hole at Bent Creek on Monday.

She also looks forward to taking her game to the collegiate level next year. There is a strong possibility she will play for the University of Evansville in Indiana.

"She's a kid who works hard and she knows what she wants to do and she works hard to achieve it," Grim said. "She out-hits a lot of boys."

Missing the cut

Matthews' father, Mark Matthews, said that Emily began practicing at the driving range for hours at a time, starting the day after she was cut.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Notre Dame's Emily Matthews lined up a putt from the fringe during a golf meet earlier this season at Bent Creek Golf Course in Jackson.

"When she didn't make it her sophomore year, and the people at Arena Golf could attest to it, she would go out there and hit for periods of three to four hours," Mark said. "Just hit balls, hit balls, hit balls, hit balls."

Emily realized she could have a future in golf if she worked at the sport.

"I could play in college because for girls it's easier to get a college golf scholarship," she said. "And I like trying new things. I like doing new things, and it was just a new thing for me to do. A new thing for me to add into my life."

She expressed some interest to her father, who played golf since he was a young boy, and he encouraged her to try out for the Notre Dame team.

The decision to try out was not simple for Emily because it meant she'd have to give up soccer, a sport she had played since she was 5 years old.

But after weighing her options, she went out for the golf team. She still remembers the way she played at that tryout.

"Sports have always come really natural to me," she said. "So I guess I assumed I would go out there, I'd pick up a club and I'd do awesome. But golf is the hardest sport I've played. I've played soccer, volleyball and basketball, and for me golf is the hardest by far.

"It was horrible. It was awful. Ugly. I don't know what synonym you want to use for ugly, but it was bad. Looking back on it, I'm like, 'Wow.'"

Working to improve

After failing to make the golf team, Emily had a chance to play for the soccer team as a sophomore, but she opted not to do so.

"They [the soccer program] said, 'You can come back. You can still play with us,' but I didn't think that was right," Emily said. "And I was still so mad and upset. I really wanted to work hard at golf and be the best I could be for next year."

Mark added: "When she did get cut, she took it tough. But it also put that little chip on her shoulder that made her work harder. ... It would have been awfully easy to say, 'Oh, I got cut. I'm going to play soccer.' Instead of doing that, she devoted that time and worked at the golf. And now she's kind of getting rewarded for it."

Emily began working to improve her swing with Ed Schwent, of the Missouri Bluffs Golf Course in St. Louis.

She still attends lessons with him about once every other week or sometimes just when she's struggling. She said he's almost like her doctor who fixes every problem.

"It [golf] is my favorite thing to do by far," she said. "My spare time I couldn't pick a thing I would rather go do. Whenever I have spare time, I go to the range and hit. I guess it consumes my life."

Emily has immersed herself in the sport. She competed in local Junior PGA tournaments and events in St. Louis. She played in the American Junior Golf Association event in Cape Girardeau, and competed in an AJGA event in Florida against 21 other girls, 14 of who had committed to play Division I on scholarships, last summer.

"We've put a lot of hours in, a lot of traveling," Mark said. "The AJGA tournament here last summer was an awakening experience for her, when you play against all the top girls in United States."

Playing with the boys

Emily started out this season on the varsity with the fourth-best average on the Bulldogs behind teammates Brett Slaten, John Oliver and Joe Wiggans.

"It feels really good," she said. "It just feels like all my work has paid off. ... I feel like my game is really improving.

"I'm more of a laid-back person, so I guess I kind of fit in with all them [the boys]. I guess I kind of like it because there is not as much drama as when you play with girls. Guys are just laid-back and it's fun to play with them."

Matthews does not get any advantages playing on the boys team. She must hit from the men's tees, and that's the way she wants it.

"I think I'd rather play with boys than girls anyway because it brings out my competitive side more," she said.

Slaten said the boys are happy to have her on the team. He's watched her improve her game, especially her course management.

"She's improved a lot really," Slaten said. "Her overall golf game has gotten a lot better."

Work to do

The reason Emily has rearranged her furniture in her room, setting up a trash can and chipping alley, is because she is working to improve her short game.

That's one area she and some close to her say she needs to improve.

"I still have a long ways to go before I am where I want to be at," she said. "Of course, I want to play in college and, I want to be successful there. But there is a lot of my game that needs work. And I think if you ask any guy out here, they would say that."

Emily said Evansville coach Jim Hamilton has watched her at the driving range for about two hours.

She said the program is trying to work out mixing athletic scholarships and academic scholarships, so she isn't sure how.

As she continues to work on her game, a question in the Matthews house persists: Who is better, Emily or her father?

"I can beat my dad now," she said, with her father standing close by, listening in and surprised.

"You want to tee it up," Mark replied. "Let's go."