Eleven girls at Nation Ford High School will be competing this week for one of the seven available slots on the golf team. The roster is scheduled to be set by Thursday.

Unlike last fall, when coach Brenda Stewart claimed that she worried about recruiting girls at a brand new school, this season, those same girls came back to do what they failed to last year: Win.

Now Stewart is looking for the girls' who hit the furthest, aim straight, stroke soft putts, and know the greens.

"We can only take six (for away games). With seven we have an alternate," Stewart stated.

She reiterated that the four girls who don't make the cut will still compete and work with assistant coach Rhonda Tyler.

"On days I go to the match she will be there working with the girls at the driving range," Stewart said.

The six starters who compete away and at Nation Ford's home course Springfield are expected by Stewart to show an enhanced knowledge of the holes they're playing.

"We were really beginning last year. [Now] you can download courses from online. They get familiar with them," Steward said.

Last year, junior Emily White was NFHS's only experienced golfer. She started playing with her dad when she was in the sixth grade and competed on J.L. Mann

High School's team in Greenville.

So far, her lowest score is a 43 against rival Fort Mill High.

"I hope we win some matches," White said. "Everybody has improved."

Coach Stewart said that returnee Bethany Wright has showed the most improvement.

"My drives would go flying into the woods. On the putting greens I was thinking about other things. [Now)] I hit it straighter," Wright said. "It can get hard. You don't know what's down the fairway."

Stewart recognizes their weakness as "inexperience, beginners, and untested" but believes that the girls are fostering a golf future for NFHS. One such player, she says, is eighth grader Nancy Holland.

"Girls don't go out [training in golf] like young boys do. Fort Mill has fostered that and got a lot of girls returning," Stewart said.

If any team in their region has their clubs shaking a bit, it's FMHS.

"Fort Mill will be our greatest challenge. We just have to be ready," White said.

Whoever goes up against NFHS, Stewart assures that they'll be ready with irons in hand.