Holder seeks to grow her game
For the first of many birdies to come, Ashley Holder could not see.
When a girl is 5 or 6 years old and not much taller than a putter, certain obstacles are hard to overcome. A lack of height is one of them.
So when Holder’s ball rolled over the hilly terrain at a nine-hole course in Orlando so many years ago, she had no idea what she did. But she heard about it.
“My dad started yelling, and I was kind of scared,’’ Holder said. “Not that I thought he was yelling at me, but I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what happened?’ And he told me.’’
Holder is grown up now, excelling first as a standout at Lake Nona High, then as a three-time American Athletic Conference women’s golfer of the year at UCF. She received a sponsor’s exemption for the IOA Golf Classic, a 54-hole Symetra Tour tournament beginning today at Alaqua Country Club in Longwood. Admission is free.
Holder, who holds a communications degree from UCF, talks loudest with a mad set of golf skills. She is expected to play full time next year on the Symetra Tour, the main development circuit for the LPGA Tour.
If Holder needs a role model, she could do worse than Celine Boutier of France. In her first year on the Symetra Tour, the former Duke standout ranks second on the money list with two events remaining. With $107,876 in earnings, she is slightly more than the cost of an iPhone X from money leader Benyapa Niphatsophon ($109,028).
Boutier has earned her 2018 LPGA Tour card.
“It still sounds weird when I talk to my friends, my parents, whatever, about what next year is going to be like,’’ Boutier said. “I still can’t believe it really, fully.’’
For almost all of the women in the the expected field of 108 golfers in the IOA Golf Classic, they’d love to be where Boutier stands. Holder included.
The Orlando native picked up a club when she was 3½ and was a college golfer as recently as this past spring, when she won the individual conference title. After tying for 20th in 2015, she is back at the IOA Golf Classic for the second time.
The tournament was canceled last year because of Hurricane Matthew.
“I just have the same mindset in each tournament where I just play the best that I can play,’’ Holder said.