ONTARIO — It is widely speculated that the average golfer in the United States records and 18-hole round score of 94.
And that takes rounds and rounds of playing and years and years of practice just to break 100.
Unless your name is Brinlee Kreger.
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The Ontario junior is a natural at the sport and she really didn’t figure that out until she picked up a club and took golf seriously until this year. Sure, she would go play some putt-putt on family vacations or go to Top Golf and just swing away. But she had never played a full round of golf in a serious manner until June of 2024.
“My dad coached golf when I was younger and he always enjoyed the game and my grandpa loves it,” Kreger said. “So, it kind of just runs in the family.”
Kreger grew up a volleyball player by nature. She played youth league and even into her sophomore year spending two years on the junior varsity. Entering her junior year, she decided it was time for a change.
“I kind of just got burned out with volleyball because I played it since I was in third grade and I wanted to switch things up,” Kreger said. “So, I figured it would be a good time to pick up golf.”
Sure, trade in volleyball for one of the most difficult sports to even be average at. What could go wrong? Not much in Kreger’s case. On the first day of the 2024 golf season at the Buckeye Central Invite, Kreger, playing in her first competitive tournament, led the Warriors to a second-place finish with the best score on the team shooting a 47 in the 9-hole round.
That would have been a 94 for 18. Average, yes, but given Kreger had never competitively picked up a golf club before Aug. 1, that is better than average in most books. Six days later in a dual with Northmor, Kreger shot a 50 tying for the lowest round on the team, but she was annoyed with the digression.
“The first time I shot under 50 was at Cranberry in New Washington and I thought that was just a one-time thing,” Kreger said. “But after that, I didn’t want to to be a one-time thing. I want to be under 50 every single time so I started hitting foam balls in the yard at home. I want to get better and decrease my score every time out by at least one stroke. I would love for it to decrease more, but even one stroke shows progress and shows you are getting better. That’s the goal every time out.”
Like every golfer and especially ones brand new to the game, there have been many ups and downs for Kreger. But mostly ups. She shot an 88 at the Willard Invitational leading the Warriors to a second-place finish as a team on Aug. 8 at one of the more difficult terrains in the area. She carded a 52-51-103 at the first round of the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championships helping the Warriors finish first overall as a team with a 399 team score. In a dual match with Clear Fork, she carded a 50 at Twin Lakes Golf Course and added a 52 in a match against Pleasant, a 208-209 loss.
At the second round of the MOAC tournament, she carded a 54-49-103 and the Warriors took first overall in that one, too. Then, it was a 101 at the Fredericktown Freddie Invite leading Ontario to a fourth-place finish out of 14 teams followed by an 83 at the Lady Colt Classic leading her team to a third-place finish.
She fired a 92 at the third round of the MOAC tournament posting the lowest score on the team and Ontario took second to Pleasant before shooting a 93 at a difficult Golf Club of Bucyrus course on Wednesday in the final round of the MOAC tournament leading the Warriors to a second-place finish for the league championship landing just one point behind Pleasant for the title.
Kreger’s performance this year is anything but average.
“It tells you how talented she is to not play at all, how she looked on that very first day and now, she has improved every day,” Ontario girls golf coach Mike Ellis said. “Her work ethic is second to none and it shows with her scores. She has been our most consistent player this year.”
And consistency is key in golf and that usually takes years and years of practice and thousands upon thousands of swings, chips and putts. Kreger built consistency in less than four months. How?
“I play softball and the swing correlates in some ways so it was a good transition,” Kreger said. “I got some lessons from Justin Schroeder who used to coach at Shelby. He has helped me so much with fixing small things and helping me be consistent. My dad and Coach Ellis do a great job at practice of answering questions.”
Ellis, who doubles as Ontario’s head baseball coach, knows a thing or two about taking softball swings and turning them into solid golf swings. In 2022, he took All-District softball player Joslynne Frazier and turned her into a competitive golfer with her sweet home run swing being harnessed into a finessed golf swing. It is a similar story to Kreger.
“I’ll take a softball player any time,” Ellis said. “It takes some time to adjust to hitting a much smaller ball, but they always swing hard and the mechanics are there. Most of all, she loves to compete. She hates to lose so she is going to bust her butt until the last hole and be a big-time competitor.”
With the postseason approaching for high school golf and the Warriors fresh off of seeing a strong lead in the race for the MOAC championship evaporate, there should be no shortage of motivation for Kreger and her teammates. They head to Sycamore Springs Golf Course on Monday to begin Division I sectional tournament play.
“Two years in a row, we made it to the district tournament as a team so that is our goal,” Ellis said. “I want to make it our standard to get there and when you get there, there are a lot of schools but you give yourself a chance to get out.”
For Kreger, she proves that if she just gives herself a chance at a new sport with very little experience, anything can and will happen.
jfurr@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ontario junior Brinlee Kreger picks up golf and becomes a natural in tough sport
