Fridley's fab five girls' golfers ready to swing for state

A mild Minnesota March made it difficult for members of the Fridley girls' golf team to contain their glee.

"We started talking golf as soon as the weather was above 32 degrees," junior Kati Stevenson said. "When we pass each other in the halls we smile and ask, 'Are you ready for golf today?' "

The question is rhetorical, of course. Brooke Teff, Christina Collins, Stevenson, Molly Becker and Katie Barrett have been building toward this point in their careers since they first shared the fairways and greens of Centerbrook Golf Course in Brooklyn Center in middle school.

Now juniors and seniors, Fridley's Fab Five share high aspirations for consistent low scores.

"Especially this year, being in the realm of the possibility of going to state, there's just so much more pressure and excitement," Stevenson said.

Last spring the group rallied around Teff, following her to the Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan for the Class 2A state tournament.

Teff, now a junior, begins each hole with a bang off the tee. Her drives travel distances upward of 250 yards.

The key, Barrett said, is keeping the ball in play. Teff concurred. She expects to be longer — and straighter — this spring.

"It's such a mental game," Teff said. "I just have to calm myself down. I'm not intimidated as much now. I know that I belong, and that's a confidence booster."

Collins, Fridley's No. 1 player the past three seasons, seeks to join Teff, who shed tears of joy after completing her round at state. Collins cried, too, after getting edged out by two strokes at the section meet.

"But I was really happy for Brooke," Collins said. "If it was someone but me, I would have chosen Brooke to go. We're really competitive with each other. We never talk about it, but secretly, we know it's down there. We each have to golf well to beat each other, so I know we push each other in that way."

Stevenson, the Tigers' No. 3 player, said Teff and Collins push the others to succeed. On the course, she wields a bright pink 3-wood club. "It's a little bit girlie, but I like it," she said.

"It's so intense and competition is so steep you have to learn how to deal with the pressure," Stevenson said. "When you make mistakes on stage, there's that next line. With golf, there's that next stroke, that next hole. You have to forget about things and move on."

High-level dance team experience and a high pain tolerance help Becker on the course. An eight-time state tournament veteran in dance, she battles Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder.

"It means all my ligaments and joints are a lot looser than they should be," Becker said. "And it causes me to injure myself a lot."

Indeed, injuries forced Becker to wear a walking boot for most of the past two golf seasons. This year she hopes to need only an ankle brace.

Katie Barrett, the coach's daughter, said putting is her strong suit.

"I'm not aiming for the sand trap, but I'm not worried when it goes in the sand," she said.

While the team follows Teff and Collins, "The rest of us have gotten better as the years have gone by," said Barrett, who noticed a difference when the group met to play at Centerbrook last summer.

"Now we go there and it's not even hard to shoot par," she said.

For a Fridley program not accustomed to golf success — Teff was the fourth golfer in program history to qualify for state — great expectations are welcome.

"We had a good group of juniors, and I knew we'd get better.'' Collins said. "Now that it's actually happening, it's such a good feeling."