HEBER SPRINGS — Katie Webb just keeps getting better, and a fourth-consecutive individual state high school golf championship could be in the offing for her this fall.
Webb, 17, a senior at Heber Springs, won state titles as a freshman and sophomore for Shirley before her family returned to its roots in Heber Springs. She won the Class 4A individual state title last year by 10 strokes and led the Lady Panthers to a 32-stroke team victory as well.
And having graduated just one player off that team, Heber Springs will again be one of the favorites in 2010.
“I want us to win state, and I want to win as an individual, just finish strong as a senior,” said Webb, who tied for seventh in the Arkansas High School Girls Overall Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club in 2009.
Her summer preparations have her in just the right place for such a goal.
For her play over the summer, Webb is both the Arkansas State Golf Association and Arkansas Women’s Golf Association Junior Player of the Year.
“This year, I just thought I was going to have fun and do my best,” she said. “I worked really hard earlier in the offseason and tried to get stronger. It really paid off. I just had a good year.”
Indeed.
On the ASGA circuit, she earned 1,025 points, well ahead of Player of the Year runner-up Kaylee Benton of Cabot, 655.
Webb won the Bruce Jenkins Memorial, finished second at Hot Springs Country Club, reached the semifinals of the ASGA Junior Match Play at Foxwood Country Club in Jacksonville, won at Burns Park, tied for second in qualifying for the Big “I” Invitational, finished second at Conway Country Club and in the Ben I. Mayo at Fort Smith, tied for first in the Chuck Morton Memorial at Mountain Home and won her last four events: the Tom Milikan Memorial at Harrison, the Randy Beaver Memorial at Cabot, the Greers Ferry Lake Junior Invitational and the ASGA Mountain Valley Junior Stroke Championship at Texarkana Country Club.
Last year, she finished second to Conway’s Summar Roachell in the ASGA Player of the Year race, 975-695. Roachell played in more out-of-state events in 2010 and finished fourth in the Player of the Year standings.
The AWGA circuit has six events, including the Hot Springs CC Invitational, the Big “I” qualifier and the Chuck Morton Memorial.
But Webb also earned 110 points for her third-place finish in the AWGA Junior Stroke and 100 for her win in the organization’s designated tournament at the Country Club of Maumelle for 470 for the season, 120 more than Roachell in second.
But Webb’s improvement can be measured in more than just tournament victories.
“Scoring-wise, last summer, every once in a while I’d shoot in the mid-to-low 70s, but most of the time it was low 80s or high 70s,” she said. “This year, I almost always scored in the low-to-mid-70s.”
Gaye Griffin Stark is starting her 10th season as coach of the Heber Springs team. She has led the Lady Panthers to three state titles and one runner-up finish in nine years.
She’s had three other girls go on to play college golf, but Webb is potentially Stark’s first NCAA Division I competitor.
So what makes Webb such a good player?
“Her focus, her drive,” Stark said. “I think the thing I love the most about her is she loves to compete.”
And her regular competition on the state’s junior circuits can only help her, said Stark, who won the AWGA’s Junior Match Play Championship in 1979 and ’80.
“Just having to go out and play, week-in and week-out, having to be mentally sharp, being able to focus and have that drive and be competitive every week — those are the things that will already be in place when she goes to the college level,” Stark said of Webb. “She’s done that the past four or five years, and she’s done very well.
“It’s real hard to get Katie to take a day of practice or a day of competition off. She loves to compete; she wants to play; she loves the game of golf. Those are the things that are going to be a major factor for her to be able to play at the next level.
“Playing week-in and week-out will not even faze Katie Webb.”
In Class 4A competition, teams play four golfers in competition and count the best three scores. The Lady Panthers have three seniors in their lineup this fall.
Stark said a handful of players, including Bobie Jo Cooper of Highland, who finished fourth last year, will push Webb as she attempts to defend her state title.
Webb’s fascination with golf began when, as a young child, she joined her father, Chris, at the course. She’d drive the cart and watch him. The family lived in Heber Springs until she was about 6. She started playing golf at about age 10 and began tournament play a year or two later.
She and her father are the family’s serious golfers.
“It’s a difficult game, and when you play good once, you want to play good again,” Webb said of what hooked her. “It’s kind of addicting. Every time you play good, you want to play a little better, and if you play bad, you want to get back out there and make up for it.”
Her best competitive round is 3-under-par. During her freshman season at Shirley, the team won the state title.
After Webb won individually again as a sophomore, her family returned to Heber Springs.
“I would say my short game is my strength,” she said. “I don’t hit it that long, but I’m a good putter. I’m consistent. I hit fairways. It makes it a lot easier when you’re playing from the fairways.”
A 4.0 student, Webb said she hopes to someday be a pharmacist. She has visited Harding University, Arkansas Tech and UA-Fort Smith and plans to visit UALR, but she was unsure at press time about her final choice.
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m pretty sure I want to go to college in Arkansas,” she said.
Webb also plays softball for the Lady Panthers, who lost to Nashville, the eventual champion, in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A State Tournament, 1-0.
Besides sports, Webb likes going to the lake, shopping and hanging out with her friends.
And she always has a built-in practice partner for golf in her dad. One of her major victories came this summer when she beat him for the first time.
“He’s not exactly practiced up, but I’m taking it as a win,” she said.