Women’s golf is finally getting a chance to compete as Bakersfield College debuts its team for the first time this fall season.
“The percent of women playing golf is going up,” said coach Sandi Taylor, who is also associate athletics director and coaches softball. She has played golf for 12 years and was asked by Athletics Director Jan Stuebbe to be the coach.
“I said absolutely,” Taylor said. She received her associate of arts degree at College of the Sequoias, and her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education at California State University, Fresno.
Taylor said that Charles Guerrero, the interim dean of students, and BC President Dr. Sandra Serrano, were instrumental in getting the women’s program started.
“They are supportive and excited about women’s golf,” she said.
Freshman Katie Ivester, ranked second on the team, has been seriously playing for five years.
“At first I was going to go to San Diego State, and housing and stuff didn’t go through, and I heard one of my friends, actually her dad talk about BC having a golf team and I looked into it more.”
She played for four years on the golf team at Bakersfield High School, three with the boys’ team, and during her senior year, on the newly established girls’ team.
Ivester’s teammate Brittany Goehring, a freshman who is the top-ranked player, also played her senior year at Centennial High School on the girls’ team.
She has played for 11 years and this year is trying to hit in the high 70s, for 18 holes, while also trying to stay away from triple and double bogeys.
“Practices are going pretty good,” she said.
Her lowest score so far has been an 82 for 18 holes.
The team practices twice a week together Tuesdays at Bakersfield Country Club and Thursdays at Rio Bravo Country Club. They also practice individually the rest of the week when not participating in conference games.
“We’ve made some good improvement, our beginners are starting to post consistent scores,” Taylor said.
She said that during practice they are working out “idiosyncracies” in their swings.
The team is ranked fourth out of the five teams in the Western State Conference, with College of the Canyons holding the No. 1 spot after four out of eight conference matches. They also participated in the Moorpark Invitational.
Taylor’s goal was to compete with Citrus College, since it has another first-year team. So far, BC is leading Citrus in the conference standings. She said that sending some players to regionals also would be great.
“Realistically, sending one or two players for Southern California to regionals, we would accomplish a great deal in the first year,” she said.
Goehring said she is glad that women’s sports are finally catching up to the men’s.
“I think it is good, it’s about time there’s a women’s team. It opens a lot of doors. There’s a lot of scholarships,” she said.
Ivester hopes to get a scholarship and transfer to a university as well, but she also said she is glad the women are getting their chance to compete.
“Before, golf was such a dominant men’s sport, and we’re actually getting a chance to go out and compete and play each other, it is a great opportunity,” Ivester said. She explained that playing golf can be relaxing, but also competitive.
“Golf is a lifetime sport. That we can play a role in their lifetime activities and sports, is a great honor,” Taylor said. “Golf is one of the only sports where men and women play equally. It is a great way for women to play with our counterparts.”
On Wednesday, the team competed in Valencia. On Monday, it goes to Tierra Rejada in Moorpark and the following Monday the team travels to Marshall City at Citrus.
For their last conference match, the team heads to Santa Barbara and then they are back at Marshall City for the conference finals.