Zimmer wraps up golf career with trip to state
Lexi Zimmer has left her mark on Ridgewood High School girls golf history. The RHS senior is the first girl golfer to ever represent Ridgewood at the state tournament.
“It felt amazing,” Zimmer said. “It was a goal of mine to at least make it once. To make it to state my senior year just makes it better.”
The state tournament was held Oct. 16-17 on the Gray Course at the Ohio State University. Zimmer tied for 23rd place in the 72-player field. “It was just a whole different experience,” she said. “It was amazing to be there.”
Zimmer has been swinging golf clubs since she was 4 years old and started competing in golf in the seventh grade. “I think it was mostly my dad that got me into it,” she said. “The most memorable part of it all has been the girls I got to meet and play with and the friendships I’ve made with girls from other teams and my own.”
About halfway through the season, Zimmer had to switch to playing on the boys team at Ridgewood.
“There was talk at the beginning of the year about if we would have enough girls,” Zimmer said. “I knew I would go play on the boys team, but when it didn’t happen at first, I didn’t think it would. Going into it, I thought it would be an easy transition. The mental side of it affected me, though. Playing with the boys is different. The girls talk all the time. It felt like a whole different game.”
However, Zimmer believes playing with the boys team helped her make it to state. “With the girls I let who I played with affect me, but with the boys they didn’t really talk at all,” she said.
Zimmer would like to thank her dad and her coaches for their help this year. “Both the boys coach and the girls coach helped me a lot through the whole process,” she said. “I also want to thank the rest of my family for their support at all of my matches.”
After graduation Zimmer is planning on attending Tiffin University to major in forensic psychology and hopefully continue to play golf.
“My advice to younger golfers is to stay happy while you are playing,” Zimmer said. “That was a big problem I had my freshman and sophomore year. I always got mad at myself. My junior and senior year, I kept telling myself it’s just golf, and that helped a lot.”
In addition to earning a trip to the state golf tournament, Zimmer also received first-team eastern district honors for the fourth time and an Academic All-Ohio Award.
Category: High School, Sports
