Grantham
Schmidt and her younger sisters, Alexandra and Colette, are no different than any of the Upper Valley’s other outstanding youth golfers of recent years. After playing significant roles at Lebanon High as teens, all three went on to college golf, two in Kentucky and the third in Connecticut. They’ve grown up.
Which means time for competitive golf can be somewhat scant. In Lisanne’s case, she’s not expecting much when she hits her former Eastman Golf Links stomping ground this morning for the first round of the 54-hole NHWGA championship.
But who’s to say the combination of the old home course and a competitive nature won’t yield something interesting?
“It’s funny because I’m driving home from my honeymoon and golf has not been on my mind,” Schmidt admitted in a phone interview last week. “I’m going to step on the course on Monday morning not having played much. For me, realistically, I think the goal for this week is to really enjoy it. I get to play with Colette the first day; it’s fun when we’re paired together.
“Of course, I want to win. I never go to a tourney not wanting to win. But I don’t know.”
Real life has a way of interfering with state amateur-level golf. Be it jobs or marriages or families, tournaments such as the NHWGA or the men’s N.H. Amateur routinely produce fields filled with either accomplished high school and college players or veteran golfers with more leeway to commit to a tournament.
The top contenders in this week’s Eastman crowd are of the same ilk. Representing youth: defending champion Chelsea Sedlar of Nashua Country Club, back after last summer’s win at Rye’s Abenaqui CC, heading toward her junior campaign at Sacred Heart University. On the side of experience: Southern New Hampshire University assistant women’s golf coach Tara Watt, the 2011 NHWGA champ, and legend Dana Harrity, a 16-time state am winner and the 2014 New England Women’s Golf Association titleist as well. The Upper Valley contingent includes, among others, Hanover’s Betsy Knights and Amy Peters along with Claremont’s Paige MacLeay.
And the Schmidt sisters, all of whom have had noteworthy competitive histories from Lebanon High and beyond.
Lisanne won the 2015 NHWGA at Dover’s Cochecho CC, just three years after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University, a year after completing her master’s in secondary and English education at SNHU and starting work as an Amherst Middle School language arts teacher. Alexandra, while still at EKU, nearly pipped Watt for the 2011 NHWGA crown at the Golf Club of New England. Colette is a two-time NHIAA girls golf champ who just completed four years of women’s golf at the University of Hartford.
Enter adult life. Alexandra joined Red River Computer in Claremont after earning her graduate degree, settling down in Sunapee. Colette is about to enter law school and is interning at a White River Junction law firm this summer.
“We’re adults,” Lisanne Schmidt said. “We have lives. We have spouses. We have lives of our own. It’s definitely good.”
And there’s the marriage thing. Lisanne and Eric Foster — the assistant general manager at Candia (N.H.) Woods CC and its sister club, The Oaks Golf Links in Somersworth — exchanged vows a couple of weeks ago. They spent a week in Washington, D.C., for their honeymoon, visiting museums left and right.
Golf takes center stage this morning. It’ll be a family reunion of sorts, as the girls’ parents still live at Eastman. It’s where they learned the game. It’s where they own a deep store of fond memories.
“I’m really excited; it’s really going to be fun,” Lisanne said. “I’ve literally been waiting my entire career to have (the NHWGA) at Eastman. I don’t compete very much anymore; I don’t play a lot with all I’m doing now. …
“It’s been a crazy summer. But I’m really excited to be able to play Eastman.”
Chip Shots: Play begins at 7:30 a.m. with Sedlar and Watt heading out from Eastman’s first tee. A total of 59 women are in the state amateur field. … That includes Lochmere’s Dale Nims, who’s teeing it up in her 50th consecutive state am. She departs the first tee with Alexandra Schmidt and Canterbury Woods’ Beth Hamilton at 7:50 a.m. … MacLeay, Watt and Knights will represent New Hampshire at the USGA Women’s State Team Championship in Santa Fe, N.M., on Sept. 26-28. … Sedlar, a Bishop Guertin High graduate from Merrimack, N.H., has made the all-Northeast Conference women’s golf first team in each of her first two years at Sacred Heart. … The NHWGA championship continues through Wednesday at Eastman.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.