High Five: Northside’s Claire Holmes; Senior signs golf scholarship to Virginia Wesleyan

Published 4:09 am Friday, November 15, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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YEATESVILLE, N.C. — Claire Holmes is a trailblazer of sorts.

The Northside High School senior became just the third girls golfer to play for the school. She became the first girl to play in the state championship last season and was the anchor on the first girls golf team this season for the Panthers.

Holmes capped that impressive high school career on Thursday by signing an athletic scholarship to play for Virginia Wesleyan. Coach Jared Adams said when he was telling colleges about her, their tunes changed when they heard her numbers and realized she was playing from the men’s tees. Interest increased when they saw what she could do from the women’s tees.

“And then she just kind of fine-tuned her game,” Adams said about playing from the women’s tees and being part of this season’s team. “I would say this season she really improved on her short game around the greens, chipping, putting. And that was, chipping was always her Achilles’ heel.

“She has the ability off the tee to be very successful with this game. Because she doesn’t miss many fairways. And if she continues to improve on her short game, she’s going to have some, she can have some rounds in college where she’s going to shoot par if not only one or two over.

“Based on her ability. Just continue to fine-tune what she already does. She strikes the ball well. She will see a lot of success at the college level.”

We talked with Claire about what she’s accomplished at Northside and what’s ahead for her now that her college future is set.

  1. We were talking about the kind of path you’ve blazed as far as playing with the guys and then having the opportunity to be part of the first girls’ team and such. Tell me a little bit about that.

Growing up, I always played with like my grandparents and stuff and getting to play in high school was just like bittersweet to kind of excel. I think it’s special that I get to be a part of the first girls’ team at Northside and even playing on the guys, that was I think one of the firsts that had happened and excelling at that was just great and getting to start the girls’ team just felt good to do.

  1. What’s something from that that you take the most?

I think pushing myself to play from the guys’ teams just kind of gave me a different mindset playing from the girls’ tees, just kind of not making it easier, but just like kind of, how to explain it … fulfilling a challenge.

  1. Every senior aspires to kind of have their college game lined up and know what to do so they don’t have to stress about it the entire time. So what was the process as far as this, and how’d you get from point A to point B?

So I made an NCSHAA app (page). I just posted all my stuff on there with golf, and they (Virginia Wesleyan) reached out and had phone calls with them. I messaged with the coach and stuff, and then I finally … I had visited two other schools prior (Methodist and Belmont Abbey), and then this was the third school I visited. The coach, he just kind of laid out the red carpet for me and just made it a perfect experience, and I loved the location and the girls on the team, and how to eat lunch with them and play with them. It was just really fun.

  1. What did they tell you they wanted you to focus on at this point now? Where do you go from here as far as just toning up your game and getting yourself ready for the college level?

We’re a member at Washington Yacht & Country Club, and so just going out there whenever I can, hitting range balls, getting out and playing some holes, and I might do, I’ll probably do some competitions or matches in the winter, something like that, but I’ll do those, and maybe a little in the summer, just to kind of do it and get ready for the real competition.

  1. How reassuring or gratifying is it to kind of get this part out of your way, because a lot of people are just the opposite right now.

I hear all my friends talking about how they still haven’t applied yet, and I think it’s just like a breath of fresh air knowing that I’m already in college, I know where I’m going, playing golf. I think it’s just a weight off my shoulders, I guess, and just focusing on grades, I guess, and golf, my golf game.

 

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