South Range golfer eyes state title

By Joe Scalzo | September 22, 2008 at 9:14p.m.

1Under normal circumstances, being a standard bearer combines all the excitement of sign-holding and keeping quiet.

But to Ariel Witmer, it turned out to be slightly more interesting. Because 2004 was the summer of Annika Sorenstam. And to a golfer who had just finished the sixth grade and dreamed of going pro one day, walking with Sorenstam for a couple hours was ... well, let Witmer tell it:

“It was the highlight of my life,” she said.

So far, anyway.

“I was really nervous at the end,” Witmer said. “Plus, we had to keep our distance, which wasn’t really fair.”

After the round, Witmer asked Sorenstam for her putter. (She said no.) But she and her sister Chelsea did get a picture with her, which they got signed when Chelsea shoved it into Sorenstam’s car as she was leaving.

(Call it a photo finish.)

Witmer, who is now a senior at South Range, started playing golf when she was 5. Her grandfather, Dale, was her first teacher. She played her first tournament when she was 7, hated golf by the time she was 11, started loving it again a few years ago and now is one of the contenders to win the Division II state title next month.