Girls Golfer of the Year -- Brittney Taylor

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on November 18, 2004 1:57 PM

• Print
• Email

Brittney Taylor is savvy -- both about the game of golf and the political theater, which she hopes to be involved in someday.

The daughter of Brenda and Tony Taylor of Goldsboro loves to play the game, and she is as smart in talking about the game as she is with a club in her hands.

"I always love playing at Goldsboro, because I started out playing there," she said. "I've always had the mentality that it's an easy course, but it's not an easy course.

"Overall, I love playing at Walnut Creek. I can't putt, but to hear some of the people talk about it ... if you know this course, you can put a pretty good handle on it. It's funny to hear people talk about the greens here, but there were days that I was not hitting the ball, but I could putt the lights out."

A senior at Eastern Wayne High School, Taylor is one of those engaging personalities that makes talking golf in the clubhouse almost as enjoyable as playing golf on the fairways.

"Some of the best golfers I've seen have been baseball players," she said. "But the trouble comes when they start thinking that they're going after a baseball, and they try to kill it."

Taking Taylor's advice is a pretty smart thing to do. She's been around the links for awhile, and she knew enough to learn the game, not just learn to shoot a low score. It was most important to her to improve her game every time out.

As a youngster, her dad taught her how to play at age eight. She would play "maybe once a year" with a small set of clubs she received from her grandfather. But before her ninth-grade year, a visit to the doctor changed her approach to the game.

"I met Lindsey Snyder at Immediate Care while we were there to get sports physicals," Taylor said. "She was talking to me about playing golf. I took it back up after my eighth grade year and I've been playing ever since."

Snyder, also an Eastern Wayne golfer, went on to a collegiate golf career at Mount Olive College. Now a senior, Taylor has been playing for the Warriors all four years of high school. This year, she put together some impressive scores. She captured the Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference championship by 19 strokes and was third at the Class 3-A eastern regional tournament, going to the state chanpionship meet for the second straight year.

Despite shooting a pair of 90s at Southern Pines, Taylor was the dominant golfer of the season in the area. As such, she was an easy choice to be the News-Argus Girls Golfer of the Year.