Hawks finish 4th at Linn-Mar Invy
Ali Lindo admits she's stubborn.
A lot of golfers would have retired for the day after aggravating a painful knee injury in the middle of their round, but Lindo stayed on the course and limped through the final 11 holes of the Linn-Mar Invitational at Hunters Ridge Golf Course Tuesday in Marion.
Remarkably, the Cedar Rapids Kennedy junior shot an 11-over-par 83 to finish only one shot behind the leaders on a warm, sunny day.
Lindo said she never thought about quitting.
"No. I don't like quitting," she said emphatically, sitting in the clubhouse with an icebag on her right knee. "I had to do that over the summer in a tournament because I got diagnosed with asthma or some kind of breathing disorder, and I just don't like walking off courses."
See? Stubborn.
"Yeah, I'm stubborn in a lot of ways," she said. "That's definitely one of them."
Cedar Rapids Jefferson senior Megan Furnish tied Taylor Roberts and Megan Brewer of Cedar Falls for medalist honors with an 82, but Furnish was not happy with her round. "Not so good," she said. "I played terrible."
Furnish won medalist honors at the CRANDIC meet last week and is 2-for-2 this season at the top of the leaderboard in major events.
Lindo originally hurt her knee in December while participating in show choir at Kennedy. "I was jumping over a box of stairs and I slipped," she said. "I don't know what I did. Neither do the doctors, because they told me nothing was wrong. But if it's hurting, I'm going to go with something's wrong."
Lindo was leaving the seventh green Tuesday when she aggravated the injury.
"I was going down the hill and I slipped, which kind of restarted the pain," she said. "So now my knee hurts and I need to ice it before it swells up again."
She said the knee has bothered her ever since she got hurt in show choir. "Yeah, pretty much," she said. "Whenever I walk too much."
High school golfers can ride a cart between holes, but otherwise they have to walk the course. Hunters Ridge measures 5,090 yards for the women from the gold tees, so she walked roughly two miles Tuesday on the rolling course after aggravating the knee injury.
"I didn't start limping until the back-9, because it started to hurt a ton more," she said. "I didn't have any ice when we came around the turn (after nine holes), so it got worse as the holes went on."
Lindo described a stabbing, throbbing pain. "A little bit of both," she said. "It stabs in the back (of the knee) and then throbs if I don't put ice on it after a while."
Doctors have taken an MRI, but found nothing wrong. Still, it hurts.
"I've been taking Advil pretty much daily to keep the pain away, and I didn't have any in my bag today," she said. "I'll be prepared from now on."
Lindo planned to seek expert advice when she got home. "I'll probably just talk to my dad, because he's a doctor," she said. "I'll just talk to him and see if he thinks anything is wrong. I'll probably just end up icing it for a couple of more weeks."
Lindo finished third at the CRANDIC meet last week with a 75 at Airport National and tied for fourth Tuesday with MJ Kamin of Washington with her 83. She said she's improved significantly from last season when she shot mostly in the high-80's to mid-90's.
"Last summer I played in tons of tournaments," she said.
Lindo was satisfied with her 83, considering she played half the round in pain.
"I could have shot a lot worse. I could have shot better," she said philosophically. "I was trying not to put too much pressure on it when I was walking between holes or between shots, because I wanted to be able to put pressure on it when I actually swung."
The Cedar Falls Tigers, who won the Class 4A state title last year, ran away with the team championship Tuesday with a four-girl score of 335. The Linn-Mar Lions, who placed eighth at the state meet in 2011, finished second at 379. Emma Lorenz led the Lions with a 91.
LINN-MAR INVITATIONAL
At Hunters Ridge
5,090 yards, Par-72
Team Standings
1. Cedar Falls 335, 2. Linn-Mar Black 379, 3. North Scott 419, 4. Prairie 424, 5. Jefferson 428, 6. Waterloo West 437, 7. Kennedy 438, 8. Anamosa 438, 9. Linn-Mar Red 452, 10. Marion 453, 11. Clinton 464, 12. Washington 468.
Top 10 Individuals
1. Megan Furnish, Jefferson, 82
Taylor Roberts, Cedar Falls 82
Megan Brewer, Cedar Falls 82
4. Ali Lindo, Kennedy 83
MJ Kamin, Washington 83
6. Allison Rolinger, Cedar Falls 84
7. Hannah Hagarty, Cedar Falls 87
8. Lauren Denning, Waterloo West 89
9. Emma Lorenz, Linn-Mar 91
10. Taylor Wade, Marion 92
LINN-MAR BLACK: Emma Lorenz 91, Julie Pople 94, CJ Davis 97, Lauren Coughlin 97, Rachel Thrune 98, Danielle Toy 101.
PRAIRIE: Kerstin Flugum 102, Alyssa Beisker 103, Emily Perrin 105, Konnor Griffith 114, Addy Shaw 121.
JEFFERSON: Megan Furnish 82, Emily Aukes 100, Sarah Tortora 121, Megan Kibby 125, Sammy Seeman 143.
KENNEDY: Ali Lindo 83, Raemi Chavez 115, Sadie Schultz 118, Hannah Harberts 122, Amanda Wiedemeier 124, Breanna Osterkamp 134.
LINN-MAR RED: Taylor Dalecky 102, Alex Dunn 112, Georgia Kolf 119, Jade Hall 119, Kristin Eiles 121, Amanda Shannon 127.
MARION: Taylor Wade 92, Ashley Reed 99, Ashley Ohl 130, Kaitie Connelly 132, Haley Shaffer 172.
WASHINGTON: MJ Kamin 83, Kandis O'Donnell 107, Elizabeth Stanczyk 133, Anna Rohde 145, Kate Nash 148.
