State Golf Preview: hard work pays off for Orrville's Abby Ankenman
You name the area course and Abby Ankenman has probably played it.
From the Northern Ohio Junior PGA Tour over the summer to the current high school season, the Orrville senior has logged more hours than most fine-tuning her golf game.
All that hard work and dedication has paid off as Ankenman will tee-off Friday in her first OHSAA Division II State Championship at Ohio State’s Gray Course.
When she can’t get on the course, she’s working on a golf simulator or hitting balls on the 150 range that Red Rider coach Chuck Davis has on his property, just to make sure that everything in her game is right.
“Abby genuinely loves to practice,” Davis said. “She told me before the season started, ‘Coach, we are going to state!’ We both laughed but I could see it in her eyes.”
A former three-sport athlete at Orrville, Ankenman stepped away from softball to concentrate on golf she played in a number of NOJPGA events, along with the local Galen Swartzentruber summer series at Riceland Golf Course.
While that work helped her compete as one of the top players as the lone female on the Red Riders squad, it also has helped her battle through any situation that has come her way.
A midseason slump could’ve derailed all of Ankenman’s dreams for the final month of the season, but the savvy veteran calmly leaned on all of those hours she logged on the driving range and course.
The result was an impressive 38 playing from the white tees at The Elms in the team’s final dual match against Tuslaw, followed by an 80 in taking medalist honors at The Pines Sectional, and then a thrilling one-hole playoff to win the Good Park District and advance to her first career state tournament.
Making the district victory even more impressive was the fact that it was over Mati Zines, a two-time state qualifier from United.
“What she did at districts was simply amazing,” Davis said of Ankenman, who improved her district score from last season by 21 strokes. “She shot in the mid-90s the previous two years (at districts), but this time she was on a mission. Mati is an excellent player and for Abby to step up and compete with her elevated her game once again.
“She really struggled midway through the season and I told her to trust the process and she did,” he added. “She has always believed.”
Ankenman becomes the first Orrville girl to play at state since Katie Burnett accomplished the feat in 1989, finishing runner-up in the inaugural state girls tournament. Burnett would then walk on at Furman University, becoming a scholarship player.
And even when faced with a pressure-packed playoff hole to win one of the biggest matches her prep career, she didn’t flinch.
“She loves pressure and it’s making me old fast,” Davis joked. “Basketball, softball and golf all add pressure and in different ways, and I feel that bring a multiple-sport athlete has helped her deal with pressure.”
That athletic background, along with playing on an all-boys team throughout the fall season, has helped Ankenman accomplish the goal that she’s been chasing since her first district appearance as a freshman.
Four years later, all of those matches playing from the men’s tees in dual and tournament play has paid off and she will get that chance to compete among the state’s best this weekend.
“What some said would be her weakness turned into her strength,” Davis said of her playing from a longer distance in the regular season. “Playing from the red tees now feels very easy to her.
“She believes in and trusts her swing. She knows her distances and her short game is pretty good right now.”
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Girls Golf: Orrville's Ankenman to compete in Div. II state tourney
