Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Beever keeps working to improve game
SILOAM SPRINGS — Brinkley Beever believes she’s improved tremendously on the golf course in her four years on the Siloam Springs golf team.
She also knows there’s still lots of room for improvement.
Beever, a senior all-state golfer for the Lady Panthers, has watched her nine-hole average drop more than 10 strokes since her freshman year in 2014, when she was named the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Newcomer of the Year.
Beever averaged 51.6 strokes per nine-hole match that year, but showed flashes of brilliance and tons of potential with her game despite having played for less than a year.
“I had just started,” she said. “So I was still trying to figure out my swing.”
Each year since then, she’s lowered that average — a 46.3 mark as a sophomore, 42.5 as a junior and now 41.08 her senior year.
Siloam Springs golf coach Michael Robertson said Beever is a strong leader for the Lady Panthers on and off the golf course.
“What I really appreciate about Brinkley is she’s very team driven,” Robertson said. “She has individual accomplishments she wants to achieve and individual goals, but she really wanted to make each other better. She’s a great practice player, leads by example. She’s always here. She’s a great student in the school, and just does everything she can to make her teammates better on the course.”
Beever has dipped her scores into the upper 30s on several occasions, and last year she finished third at the Class 6A state girls tournament and qualified for the state overall tournament in Little Rock. She’s the third Lady Panther to qualify for the overall, joining Emery Rakestraw (2011) and Shelby Crawley (2013).
“I’ve taken lessons and kind of gotten it figured out,” she said. “I’ve changed on my course management so much and that’s why my scores have dropped. So I’m a completely different golfer. I’m totally different.”
With that in mind, though, Beever said her game is everevolving and she is constantly working on ways to improve, which is why she expects to be a “completely different golfer” down the road as well.
“Golf is different because you’re always working on something, always changing something in your swing,” she said. “You’re always trying to get better, so I don’t think you ever really stay the same. So I’m probably looking to change several things, get more consistent, be smarter, hit it farther and do as good as I can.”
Beever has a couple of opportunities on the horizon to cap off her senior golf season.
Next week, she will fly out to Pebble Beach, Calif., to participate in the 2017 PURE Insurance Championship. She was one of 33 girls and 81 junior golfers total selected to play in the event by a national panel of judges based on playing ability and comprehension of the life skills and core values learned through involvement with The First Tee program.
“Ever since I got involved with The First Tee (of Northwest Arkansas), I’ve heard about it,” Beever said. “It’s always been my top goal. For years, I’ve been working toward it. To finally get chosen to do it is so exciting.”
She has been involved with The First Tee of Northwest Arkansas ever since she began playing golf before her freshman year.
It’s helped her land several opportunities in the game, including extensive time at the LPGA’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship held each year at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.
Beever has gotten to caddy
the last two years for former University of Arkansas standout and former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis in the pro-ams, along with getting to meet several other professional golfers.
“The first year, (Lewis) let me hit off of two of the par 3s, and I hit the green both times, so that was cool,” Beever said. “The second year, she let me putt and I drained two 30-footers for their group, and my drive was like straight down the middle. It was almost the long drive. Those were definitely highlights.”
Her stay out in California might get cut short, though. She’ll need to get back by Sept. 25 for the start of the Class 6A State Girls Golf Tournament at Big Creek Golf and Country Club in Mountain Home.
The first day of the state tournament is also the conference championship, and Siloam Springs will look to defend its 2016 6A-West Conference title.
The Lady Panthers wound up finishing fourth overall at the state tournament in 2016, and with Beever at the top of the rotation, they believe they have a good chance to contend for the program’s first state championship.