WOODLAND — Delainey Patterson called it “golfing heaven.”
Her coach Paul Shapard called it the best weather he’s ever had for the 10-year history of the Prairie Invitational.
But even in years when the skies weren’t sunny and the temperatures were not in the 80s, as they were on Wednesday, the unique format for the late-season girls golf event has been brightening the days of Southwest Washington golfers since Shapard made a simple format change six years ago.
When it started, the Prairie Invitational was like any other 18-hole tournament, with a handful golfers posting good scores and the majority of the participants shooting well into the 100s.
But then Shapard decided to put camaraderie over competition. He changed the event to a modified scramble, in which four-player teams are constructed with players from different schools and with different abilities.
“I was just looking to make it more of a social event,” Shapard said. “At this point in the season, everyone is getting geared up for the stress of district and bi-district tournament. And I just wanted to give the girls a chance to get to know each and have fun.
“The first year we went to this format, we had horizontal rain. And the girls were still coming off the last green giggling. I knew then it was going to be a hit.”
In this format, first-year golfers can make contributions to their foursome, as well as experienced golfers, with less of the worry of letting one terrible shot ruin their entire day.
“I always like to say the golf is serious enough; you don’t need to make it more serious,” said Patterson, a senior at Prairie and one of the area’s top prep golfers. “But sometimes, that’s hard to remember. I played pretty well today, but I wasn’t playing so well the first couple of holes. But because I was just so chill with the other girls, I didn’t let that bother me. And then I started playing better because I was so relaxed. Playing in an event like this reminds of that.”
In Wednesday’s format, one golfer was selected to play the “orange ball” for each hole. That golfer would play the same ball from tee to green, just like a normal round of golf. The player with the orange ball would change each hole.
The other three golfers would play the hole in a scramble format.
“It takes away a lot of the pressure on the weaker players, while still allowing them to make contributions,” Shapard said. “We’ve had players win prizes who have never won anything for golf. When we hand out prizes, often there are tears in a lot of eyes.”
Patterson was paired with Skyview’s Halie Renne, Hockinson’s Emily Martin and Heritage’s Shweta Nand. The foursome won the scramble format. The second-place team was Maddy McKinney of Skyview, Charis Abrahamson of Prairie, Adison Wolfrey of Mountain View and Tori Oja of King’s Way Christian.
The team of Emily Davidson of Battle Ground, Piper Nguyen of R.A. Long, Kaila Bonawitz of Mountain View and Katie Stamp of Heritage won the orange ball scoring, while Patterson’s foursome took second.
But winning was secondary on Wednesday.
“I’m a talker; I like to talk on the golf course, more than most people think,” Patterson said. “And today, I was able to talk. We talked, we laughed, we helped each other out on the course. Someone would make a nice chip or a nice putt, and we’d all celebrate. It was just great.”
