Ross Arrington is a little nervous

Arrington leads the way for Owl golf, but he hasn’t always been a golfer. He took up the sport in his eighth grade year on a whim.

Arrington spent part of last Wednesday on the driving range at Pecan Lakes working on his mid-range game. With the pin 155 yards away and the wind blowing in his face at about 15 miles per hour, Arrington took his 7-iron and hit. And hit. And hit. He placed most of the balls within 6 feet of the pin – to what would possibly set up an easy birdie or par.

“I got bored one day and my dad asked me if I wanted to play golf,” he said. “I got frustrated with it. I don’t like Ping G20 fairway wood not being able to do things.”

“I like when it’s windy and I can see the other guys kind of struggling because they’re not used to it,” Arrington said.

“I had no problem hitting the ball,” he said. “But in my short game, the ball wouldn’t go where I wanted it to go. But I played, and played and played and I loved it.”

For the longest time he couldn’t break 100. He only took three professional lessons, with the only other lessons given by his father, Camp Arrington, and impromptu instructions by a couple other players at Pecan Lakes Golf Course.

Before Arrington, there was no golf at Anderson-Shiro. He was golfing when golfing wasn’t cool. Arrington was the only golfer at the school his freshman year until he talked a friend into playing just so he wouldn’t be so bored on the road trips. A couple more joined during his sophomore year. By his junior year, Anderson had enough golfers to have a boys team and a girls team – five golfers make up a team. And this year, there were two boys teams and one full girls team and a couple of more girls to almost comprise another team. Anderson had both a boys and girls team Ping K15 Irons qualify for the region tournament this year, and both finished fifth.

“I couldn’t break 100 for four months,” Ross said. Then I broke 100. Then I broke 90, then 80 and started playing in the mid-70’s. Then I got into the 60’s.” His score of 64 at Pecan Lakes during a Bellville High tournament is only two strokes off the course record of 62.

Arrington qualified for state by shooting a 1-under par at the Class 2A Region III Tournament in Bullard. The champion at the tournament shot 4-under par.

The Roy Kizer Course in Austin is very similar to Arrington’s home course of Pecan Lakes. It’s wide open with lots of water and it’s very windy, Arrington said.

Ross will tee off Thursday once again discount golf clubs at the Roy Kizer Golf Course. He was scheduled for a practice round Tuesday this week, and he was to stay in Austin until the two-day tournament began.

Arrington went back to state as a junior, but he didn’t spend much time practicing that year, he said, because of his time on the Owl baseball team. He said he’d only practiced once before the regional tournament, and he finished ninth at state