Kaplan and Blankenship capture Blogspot.com Classic

Jaime Kaplan is a coach at heart.
And when she was given the task of making Kate Blankenship a golfer in a little over a week, she took the opportunity and ran with it.
The hard work paid off as the team of Kaplan and Blankenship shot a playoff final round of 66 to edge out two other teams for the championship.
"I knew I could play but when I got Kate at the last minute, I  wasn't sure we could pull this off, said Kaplan, whose birdied 15, 16, and 17 on the touch and treacherous Golf Club of Macon Course, to put the match away. "We practiced eight hours a day at the Jaime Kaplan Tennis Center, which by the way is named after me, and we focused on the simple things. First I had to teach her not to kick the ball because she was a soccer player. Then I had to teach her not to throw the ball because she was a goalie. Once I got it into her mind that she had to hit the ball with a club, we started to make progress. It was not easy, but Kate put in the work and it paid off. "
Blankenship admits to never playing golf in her life, but was a standout college soccer player who started close to 80 games in goal for UAB. She gives her pure athletic ability credit for the quick learning of a new game. "First of all , Jaime was a great teacher, but overall I am a very athletic person and I feel like I can pick any game up in a week or so. Lets not give her too much credit. Golf is very much like soccer in that it is rather boring for spectators and ok I will admit, it was boring for me too. I mean its riding a cart to the ball , hitting the ball, hitting the ball, hitting the ball, and then hitting the ball with the putt putt stick, and then getting back in the cart and riding to the next hole. I think we had a good time and of course we wanted to win and represent Stratford, but in the long run I don't think I will be playing golf til next year,"
The team of Haley and Steven Gordon finished four shots out of the lead to finish second and fell out of contention on the par three number nine when they carded a 9. "I am pretty sure that a nine isn't very good," said Haley Gordon, who after a vacation to Bora Bora , which is a suburb of Tybee Island, was not too worried about her golf score. "We didn't practice at all when we were on vacation because who wants to play  golf on vacation, and we were too busy anyways with the beach. I guess that hurt us a lot. But that 9 on that hole was just stupid. I did want everyone to know that my dad did not make the 9 I did. He hit like five balls into the water. But overall I was happy to represent Bora Bora in a positive way. "
The team of Brent Thornton and Josh Grube were no shows to the event.