Team dynamic is important to Centre College freshman golfer Nina McCurtrey of Glasgow

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Nina McMurtrey had two rounds of 71 to finish third in her second collegiate tournament. (Jane Hopkinson-Wood Photo)

Nina McMurtrey had five friends who started playing golf at the same time in Glasgow and they all played golf together through their senior season at Glasgow High School.

“We were very close. They were my best friends,” said McMurtrey. “For me, the most important thing on a golf team was having a good dynamic. When I was narrowing down my college choice, I kept thinking about that. I found that at Centre. Since I have been here we all study, eat, go places together. It’s the same feeling as high school just with a new set of girls.”

The Centre College freshman also knew Centre College golfers Emily Warner of Louisville, Grace Walker of Louisville and Raegan Richardson of Bowling Green.

“Being able to be on the same team and not compete against them has been exciting,” McMurtrey, who was on regional championship teams as a junior and senior, said.

“Everything at Glasgow prepared me for college golf,” she said. “Glasgow is actually tied with Sacred Heart for the most state championships in girls’ golf (with five). It has an amazing legacy that can be intimidating if you are a Glasgow golfer.”

Former Glasgow High School golfer Whitney Wade won the Kentucky Amateur at age 13 in 1998, played college golf at Georgia and won a LPGA event before going into coaching. Morgan Hapney won the high school state championship, was named Miss Golf in Kentucky and played at Louisville.

McMurtrey and her friends joined the high school team as fourth-graders before the Kentucky High School Athletic Association enacted a rule that golfers had to be in the seventh grade. She finished second in the All-A Classic as a junior before winning the title her senior year.

“I was 4-over par on the front nine and not happy my senior year. My coach said I had to get it together and I shot 4-under on the back nine to win,” she said.

She had a similar experience in her first collegiate match when she shot a 76 at the Schweizer Invitational in Ohio.

“I was 5-over on the front nine but on the 10th hole, a par-five, I made one from 82 yards for an eagle. I was able to go 1-under on the back nine and do some damage control,” she said.

“I was nervous in my first match but the captains Meaghan (Grant) and Margaret (Butts) told me I would be nervous but that the bus was not going to leave without me. They said, ‘Just do your best. We will love you either way.'”

She had consecutive rounds of 71 at the MCC Women’s Intercollegiate Sunday and Monday to help Centre finish second overall. She had a top-three finish in only her second collegiate event.

McMurtrey’s goal for this season is simple — be able to compete in every event. She wants her scoring average to be 73-74 like it was during summer play.

“Hopefully we can win conference again with this team and go to nationals. I think going to nationals as a freshman would be fun,” she said. “Expectations here are high. Coach (Jane Hopkinson-) Wood is so amazing. She pushes us to be the best every day in practice and the classroom. She’s a fantastic judge of character and I don’t think from my junior year on she missed a single one of my tournaments. Other coaches said they would like to have me but she said, ‘You are coming here.’ She is the best.”

McMurtrey received the Marilynn Smith Scholarship awarded to eight school players in honor of one of the LPGA’s 13 founders. She took 11 AP classes and two dual credit courses at Glasgow and maintained a 4.0 grade-point average.

“That was one of the biggest honors I have ever received,” she said. “It was an amazing thing. It was an essay scholarship and I wrote about growing up in a small town and learning to play golf with the legacy of so many women before me who had done so well.”

McMurtrey’s sister, Makena, is a senior at Centre College. The freshman calls her one of the “smartest people” she has ever known.

“I had big shoes to fill. My parents had big expectations for me which I am grateful for, especially now that I am at Centre because a lot is expected here. My high school workload prepared me and made the transition easier,” McMurtrey said.

“But my sister is all brains. She just signed a contract with the Air Force to go into intelligence work with them. She speaks three languages and is incredible. Her major is international relations with a minor in Arabic. My major is finance/econ. I am more math than here. But it is great having her here. It’s nice to have a piece of home with me.”

McMurtry did not grow up dreaming of playing collegiate golf. She played basketball — “My dad was huge on basketball” — but when COVID hit and she could not travel she decided it would be best with her academic schedule to only concentrate on golf.

“I didn’t want to chance an injury, so I did not play basketball after my sophomore year,” she said. “I wanted to focus more on golf.”

However, she likes to stay busy and a friend on the golf team talked her into joining the high school swim team.

“I got up three days a week at 5:30 to go to the pool to swim. I would then go to school, go work and go home,” she said. “I was not a good swimmer. If you had thrown me into the deep end (of the pool) I wasn’t going to drown. Now I am a good swimmer. It was one of the best conditioning things I have ever done.

“I don’t like running and swimming is just like running under water with no air, so it is way worse. I am not sure what I was thinking but it got me in the best shape of my life.”

She did the 100-meter backstroke, 50 freestyle and 50 butterfly. Her swim coach understood she was not college bound in swimming but McMurtry admits it was “frustrating at times” because she knew she could and should go faster.

“I had to tell myself if you put those girls (she was swimming against) on the golf course, I would beat them,” McMurtrey said. “But in the pool they were going to swim laps around me. I learned it is okay not to be the best at everything sometimes but on the golf course, I always want to be the best.”

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