Severna Park golfer Kelly Lynch is no stranger to success.
Lynch began her junior year by winning the girls individual state golf championship, and she will finish it by playing in the McDonald?s LPGA Tour Championship Pro-Am Tournament on June 5-6 at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace.
“I am looking forward to seeing how they play,” said Lynch, referring to the professional golfers she will face. Lynch earned her spot in the Pro-Am by winning the McDonald?s LPGA Pro-Am Contest held at Mountain Branch Golf Course in Joppa on Saturday.
Severna Park?s golf coach, Paul Pellicani, caught word of the contest and alerted Lynch and her family. “It was a wonderful and unique opportunity,” Pellicani said.
The contest was offered to high school female golfers as a skills competition split info five areas: longest drive, straightest drive, closest to the pin, chipping, and putting.
Kelly, who has played since she was 7, credits her father, Mike Lynch, for getting her interested in golf. “I started off teaching her, but when she got better than me I turned her over to somebody else,” he said.
That somebody else was Jim Kardash, a PGA Golf instructor at Arundel Golf Park in Glen Burnie. Kardash had been instructing Lynch for two years, and in that time she has gone from 16- to 4-handicap, according to Lynch.
“Kelly has a good attitude, a good demeanor and she works hard,” Kardash said. Kardash said he usually has at least one lesson a week with Lynch. He estimated that in the spring and summer she plays nearly every day.
Kardash said that Lynch?s participation in the Pro-Am tournament would give her good exposure to colleges. “I am looking at colleges now to see if I can go to school and play golf,” Lynch said.
Mike Lynch said that Kelly has made finding a good school her top priority. “She wants to find a good school, that also has a golf team,” Mike Lynch said. “She wants so stay closer to home.”
LYNCH ON THE LINKS
» Joining Kelly Lynch at the skills competition Saturday were Maria Bellantoni (Notre Dame Prep), Lydia Mattern (Rising Sun High School), Julia Sizemore (Bel Air High School) and Anne Wooton (Friends School).
» Lynch?s lowest round is 64. She shot that in a tournament in July 2005 at Eisenhower Golf Course in Annapolis.
» During the fall golf season, Lynch competes against male and female high school golfers. Lynch said that she is on the same skill level with the male golfers in Anne Arundel County and enjoys the added competition.
