Canfield’s Keffler states her case

October 21, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

Canfield’s Hannah Keffler is in special company.

The sophomore is the Cardinals’ first Division I girls golf state qualifier since 2013. Her coach, Diane McCall, has seen a lot of quality players during her 20 years of coaching. She remembers all five of the girls who took 11th in Columbus in 2013 and was quick to point out each one plays for their respective team in college.

In her opinion, Keffler is just as talented as any of those players.

“She’s right there and she’s young,” McCall said. “What she’s accomplished as a sophomore is something in the past I’ve seen more often with juniors and seniors.”

Keffler rides a record-setting round in district play into Columbus. She’ll tee off today and Saturday at Ohio State’s Gray Course.

“There’s not many sophomores who go to state, so I’m proud of that, but I’ve definitely put in a lot of work over the past two weeks to prepare and I’m glad it all worked out,” Keffler said.

She shot a school-record 74 — the lowest score by a Cardinal golfer in districts — on Oct. 11 at Legends of Massillon to take fifth overall and one of the three individual qualifying slots. It wasn’t the score that surprised her, but how she got there.

“Everything was going well. I hit 16 out of 18 greens, so I would say my approach shots were my strong suit,” Keffler said. “I was kind of surprised because I didn’t have any birdies all day and I thought with having a score like that, I would have some.

“I was just trying to minimize the damage, I guess,” she added.

Keffler made it to districts as a freshman the previous year, but a 79 wasn’t enough to get her to state.

“I knew how to play [the course] better and I was a lot more confident going into it. I knew what kind of score I needed to get out to state,” Keffler said. “I think the biggest difference is I was more calm during my round.”

Keffler has never played the Gray Course, but McCall has a lot of experience there as a rules official in previous Division I and II tournaments.

“When you step on the course at Ohio State University, you know you’re not in a regular tournament,” McCall said. “You have to keep your nerves and your excitement all in check and I hope as her coach, I can help her focus and play as well as she did [in districts].”

Keffler, a runner-up in her division in The Vindicator’s Greatest Golfer of the Valley credits her short game for getting her to Columbus.

“I work on it a lot and I usually have to have a good short game because I tend to not hit the ball as far as some of the girls I play with,” Keffler said.

Canfield had a strange year by McCall’s standards. The team fell short of making districts, but had three individual qualifiers in Keffler, Gillian Cerimele and Carmel Cerimele.

“It’s rare that it happens, usually you get one or two, but not three,” McCall said. “Usually if you have three, you’re there as a team and it just didn’t happen. We missed by four strokes.”

Keffler said she’s been playing in tournaments individually since the age of 8, so competition isn’t new for her. Keffler and McCall are keeping their expectations for Columbus open.

“She’s capable of a great performance,” McCall said. “We’ll see what happens.”