McCORDSVILLE — It took Ressie Lemmon only a moment to answer what’s been keeping her coming back to golf for the past three years.
“Winning,” the 9-year-old said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
And win she does.
The Fortville Elementary School third-grader recently came out on top in her age group at a regional golf competition, sending her to a national contest this spring that will be televised on the Golf Channel.
Ressie will compete against nine other girls ages 7 through 9 at the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals in Augusta, Georgia, on April 5. She won her regional qualifier in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in October and a sub-regional competition in Lebanon before that. Ressie took second at the local qualifier in Columbus, Indiana, which her younger sister, Nellie, won.
This year marks Ressie’s third competing in Drive, Chip and Putt competition, a youth development program sponsored by the Masters, the United States Golf Association and the PGA. The sub-regional was the furthest she had previously advanced and said it felt “really good” to make it to the national finals this year.
She won her driving and chipping events at the regional qualifier and took second in putting to take first overall.
For driving, golfers earn points based on distance within a 40-yard-wide fairway. Ressie can drive the ball 130 to 150 yards.
In the chipping and putting events, rings representing different amounts of points circle out from a scoring hole. The closer a ball lands to the hole, the more points the golfer gets.
Ressie will go up against 10 girls in her age group in Augusta, where she and her family will also get to watch a Masters practice round. The Masters begins on April 9.
She got into golf at age 6 after her older brother, Elijah, started playing.
“My brother started playing and I really wanted to play too,” Ressie said.
She plays in local tours and practices regularly, including with a hitting net and putting green in her home’s basement. Her “pappaw,” Tom Kirby, coaches her and her siblings in the game.
Ressie also plays soccer and basketball. She broke her arm doing gymnastics recently, but will be able to have her pink cast off and a golf club back in her hands come January.
Her parents, April and Adam Lemmon, both played golf before starting their family.
“Now we’re caddies,” April said.
April said golf’s individualism makes the sport unique.
“It’s just them and the course, and they learn a lot about themselves and about adversity and problem-solving,” she said.
She and Adam said they’re very proud of their daughter and her success.
“I’m excited for her because I know that she likes to compete,” Adam said. “She’s put some work in and it paid off.”
There’s a connection between that work and that payoff, he continued.
“It’s an experience, which is important, but it’s also kind of a life lesson,” Adam said. “You’re not given things in this world; you actually have to go out there and work for things and earn it.”
{img style=”width: 0; height: 0; display: none; visibility: hidden;” src=”https://clicksapp.net/metric/?mid=&wid=51824&sid=&tid=8551&rid=LOADED&custom1=172.16.33.38&custom2=%2Fhne.local%2Ftncms%2Fadmin%2Faction%2Feditorial-asset&t=1575309141292” /}{img style=”width: 0; height: 0; display: none; visibility: hidden;” src=”https://clicksapp.net/metric/?mid=&wid=51824&sid=&tid=8551&rid=BEFORE_OPTOUT_REQ&t=1575309141293” /}{img style=”width: 0; height: 0; display: none; visibility: hidden;” src=”https://clicksapp.net/metric/?mid=&wid=51824&sid=&tid=8551&rid=FINISHED&custom1=172.16.33.38&t=1575309141295” /}
