By Taylor Boggs ’16, Sports Editor

Practicing since age six and competing in tournaments since age nine—now that’s commitment.  Some of us cannot even imagine being committed to a sport for more than a season or two, but for senior Kacie Bradfish a certain sport is part of her daily life.  For the past eleven years, her life has consisted of golfing and she has come extremely far since that first practice at age six: over her high school career she has attended three of the four state tournaments placing eighth at State this year.  Bradfish was also named Second Team All-State and was the only Miami Valley Conference golfer to advance to the state level. Bradfish says that she finds the sport “addicting because there is always room for improvement.”  Most golfers would agree to this statement; as a golfer myself I can attest that you can always improve in the sport, but it can also be the most aggravating and tension filled sport that you participate in.   Bradfish’s “desire to continually get better” drives her commitment.  Likewise, the she likes to set goals, such as returning to State, and then she “works hard to achieve them.” As a life-long athlete, Bradfish’s short term goal is to bring her “scoring average to [the] mid- to upper 70s” for her national level tournaments where she will play college distances.  On the other hand, her long term goals consist of “playing competitively in college” and being “one of the starters” on her team in college.  Because of her incredible commitment, one would expect her to play for a very long time, which is exactly what she is going to do: “Yes I plan to play competitively in college, and I plan to play golf for the rest of my life.” Although the young athlete loves playing golf, she wishes she could also swim, however she “doesn’t have time to commit to it because of the time [she] devotes to golf.”  If there was any advice that she could give to beginners it would be that “you have to be patient.”  Golf is a very tiring and mental sport.  “No one is automatically good at golf” and it is hard not to be discouraged by a bad day because golf is never consistent from one day to the next.  Nevertheless you have to be persistent and continue practicing. Golf is an extremely individual sport, however teammates are very important contributors to a golfer’s success.  As Bradfish explained, “The team keeps [you] from getting too serious about the game.”  Teammates can always cheer you up and make you feel better.  Also, “they help you stick to your goals because you constantly want to improve so you don’t let them down.” When asked about what playing golf at Country Day has done for her, Bradfish stated that: “Country Day golf has challenged me and forced me to improve the weaker spots in my game because the challenging courses we play like Camargo and Terrace Park reveal the areas that need improvement.  Country Day golf has also provided me with a fabulous coach [Mrs. Patt Dunn] who always brought an interesting view to every shot even though sometimes we disagreed.  I now think of many different options before each shot because of her.”