SE: Senior Connie Jaffrey Playing for More than Herself in NCAA Regional
May 07, 2018 | Women's Golf, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
As K-State women's golf senior Connie Jaffrey tees off on Monday morning on the University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, Wisconsin, she'll do so as an individual qualifier for the NCAA Regional.
Jaffrey is the first to point out she did not get to this point alone, however. Nor did her maturation into one of the best Wildcats ever to tee it up happen overnight. So, while she will be playing without her teammates nearby this week, she will be playing for them, the ones that came before and the school they have all shared in common.
"You are going by yourself, so your only focus is on your own performance rather than everyone else's, but that representation of K-State, I'm going to bring that to the tournament," Jaffrey said. "It's not just me. I'm not just going there for myself. I'm going to wear the colors, both coaches are coming, so we're all, I feel like as a team, going to Regionals. But hopefully there will be five players going next year."
That do-more attitude has always been part of Jaffrey's makeup.
Her first two seasons at K-State, Jaffrey was not the best player on her team. Madison Talley was. This motivated Jaffrey. The Kilwinning, Scotland, native finished second on the team in stroke average as a freshman and sophomore behind Talley, who earned an individual NCAA Regional bid both seasons. Jaffrey said she was "envious" of Talley's accomplishments, and they pushed her even more.
"It was motivation. It's good to have healthy competition, especially during practices. Coaches organize little games and tasks, so I was always, 'I need to be the best on the team.' If I was paired with Madison, it was, 'OK, we're going to have fun, but I don't want you to beat me,'" Jaffrey said, with a laugh. "It's good to have healthy competition."
The two still live together and Jaffrey, along with acquiring a liking for country music from Talley, also received reaffirming advice from her roommate about playing in an NCAA Regional as an individual.
"She has kind of the same opinion as me. It's nothing really different. You are going with only one person rather than five so I suppose that's kind of different, but she did say that it's a great environment to be in," Jaffrey said. "It's healthy competition and the challenge of it is good because you have the best players in the country you're playing against, so I think it adds to enjoying it rather than being nervous."
Much like she strove to beat Talley in her first three seasons, Jaffrey has seen her younger teammates bring the same attitude this year, and three times this season she finished behind one or more of them. Among first-year players across the country, Golfstat.com ranked K-State's four freshmen fifth in the country.
"They are a competitive group. Ever since they first got here they wanted to be the top freshmen or they wanted to do the best on the team and that shows through their passion when they play," Jaffrey said. "They definitely bring that competitiveness and they want to do the best for the team as well."
More important than self-driven competitiveness, Jaffrey said she hopes the younger Wildcats learned the value of growing from each experience, good or bad, by watching how she handles herself on the golf course.
"I would hope that my lasting impact would be my experience and my demeanor of what I bring to the team. I'm a big believer that you grow as a person and through experience you learn a lot more," she said. "Right now they are a young team, so maybe they don't carry themselves on the golf course like other senior (golfers) would. Emotions are kind of hard when you're having a hard day, so maybe through the way I act, carry myself, like, yeah, I had a tough day but I get on with it and move on to the next tournament. I would like for them to take that away into the following years."
A few years ago, Jaffrey admits she was not as concerned with what she gave back and more interested what she got accomplished.
From the beginning she was driven to be the best, which she arguably achieved. She enters the three-day Madison Regional ranked first in program history for annual stroke average (72.66) and career stroke average (74.12), ahead of Talley in both categories. Jaffrey also ranks second in program history in career wins (4), top-five (9) and top-10 (15) finishes.
As she learned, however, she did reach this level of success without an abundance of help.
Talley served as early motivation. Head coach Kristi Knight and assistant coach Jared Helin helped fine-tune Jaffrey's game along the way. More recently, the K-State men's golf coaches, who traveled to Wisconsin's University Ridge Golf Course last fall, went over the yardage book with her to help prepare her for this week. Even the Colbert Hills staff, between changing pin locations and green speeds to match what Jaffrey will see in Wisconsin, went the extra mile to better prepare her.
"I think I just came to realize that it's not all about the individual person. You're there to perform by yourself, get a great education, get a good GPA by yourself, but as a team, it's what you achieve together, isn't it? And K-State does have that kind of feeling," she said. "Everyone is here to help you and you have support all around you."
Update: Connie Jaffrey missed Sunday's practice round with a sudden illness, but team officials were hopeful the senior could still compete in Monday's opening round.
As K-State women's golf senior Connie Jaffrey tees off on Monday morning on the University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, Wisconsin, she'll do so as an individual qualifier for the NCAA Regional.
Jaffrey is the first to point out she did not get to this point alone, however. Nor did her maturation into one of the best Wildcats ever to tee it up happen overnight. So, while she will be playing without her teammates nearby this week, she will be playing for them, the ones that came before and the school they have all shared in common.
"You are going by yourself, so your only focus is on your own performance rather than everyone else's, but that representation of K-State, I'm going to bring that to the tournament," Jaffrey said. "It's not just me. I'm not just going there for myself. I'm going to wear the colors, both coaches are coming, so we're all, I feel like as a team, going to Regionals. But hopefully there will be five players going next year."
That do-more attitude has always been part of Jaffrey's makeup.
Her first two seasons at K-State, Jaffrey was not the best player on her team. Madison Talley was. This motivated Jaffrey. The Kilwinning, Scotland, native finished second on the team in stroke average as a freshman and sophomore behind Talley, who earned an individual NCAA Regional bid both seasons. Jaffrey said she was "envious" of Talley's accomplishments, and they pushed her even more.
"It was motivation. It's good to have healthy competition, especially during practices. Coaches organize little games and tasks, so I was always, 'I need to be the best on the team.' If I was paired with Madison, it was, 'OK, we're going to have fun, but I don't want you to beat me,'" Jaffrey said, with a laugh. "It's good to have healthy competition."
The two still live together and Jaffrey, along with acquiring a liking for country music from Talley, also received reaffirming advice from her roommate about playing in an NCAA Regional as an individual.
"She has kind of the same opinion as me. It's nothing really different. You are going with only one person rather than five so I suppose that's kind of different, but she did say that it's a great environment to be in," Jaffrey said. "It's healthy competition and the challenge of it is good because you have the best players in the country you're playing against, so I think it adds to enjoying it rather than being nervous."
Much like she strove to beat Talley in her first three seasons, Jaffrey has seen her younger teammates bring the same attitude this year, and three times this season she finished behind one or more of them. Among first-year players across the country, Golfstat.com ranked K-State's four freshmen fifth in the country.
"They are a competitive group. Ever since they first got here they wanted to be the top freshmen or they wanted to do the best on the team and that shows through their passion when they play," Jaffrey said. "They definitely bring that competitiveness and they want to do the best for the team as well."
More important than self-driven competitiveness, Jaffrey said she hopes the younger Wildcats learned the value of growing from each experience, good or bad, by watching how she handles herself on the golf course.
"I would hope that my lasting impact would be my experience and my demeanor of what I bring to the team. I'm a big believer that you grow as a person and through experience you learn a lot more," she said. "Right now they are a young team, so maybe they don't carry themselves on the golf course like other senior (golfers) would. Emotions are kind of hard when you're having a hard day, so maybe through the way I act, carry myself, like, yeah, I had a tough day but I get on with it and move on to the next tournament. I would like for them to take that away into the following years."
A few years ago, Jaffrey admits she was not as concerned with what she gave back and more interested what she got accomplished.
From the beginning she was driven to be the best, which she arguably achieved. She enters the three-day Madison Regional ranked first in program history for annual stroke average (72.66) and career stroke average (74.12), ahead of Talley in both categories. Jaffrey also ranks second in program history in career wins (4), top-five (9) and top-10 (15) finishes.
As she learned, however, she did reach this level of success without an abundance of help.
Talley served as early motivation. Head coach Kristi Knight and assistant coach Jared Helin helped fine-tune Jaffrey's game along the way. More recently, the K-State men's golf coaches, who traveled to Wisconsin's University Ridge Golf Course last fall, went over the yardage book with her to help prepare her for this week. Even the Colbert Hills staff, between changing pin locations and green speeds to match what Jaffrey will see in Wisconsin, went the extra mile to better prepare her.
"I think I just came to realize that it's not all about the individual person. You're there to perform by yourself, get a great education, get a good GPA by yourself, but as a team, it's what you achieve together, isn't it? And K-State does have that kind of feeling," she said. "Everyone is here to help you and you have support all around you."
Update: Connie Jaffrey missed Sunday's practice round with a sudden illness, but team officials were hopeful the senior could still compete in Monday's opening round.
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