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Alexa David remembers what she needed to make the Richland girls golf team as a freshman three years ago.
Pretty much, a pulse.
"There were only six girls who tried out," she recalled. "So I kind of knew I was going to make the team."
Flash forward to a sunny Friday afternoon at Meadow Springs Country Club. David, now a senior, is surrounded by 14 other Bombers as they ready for practice.
"We have so much talent, especially young talent, that we never had before," said David, a state qualifier last year. "This year, you've got to really compete to make the pod (matches)."
David was one of three freshmen to play on the varsity three years ago. The other two, Kelsey White and Hilary Hull, hadn't played a competitive round of golf before turning out.
Contrast that with this year's team. Yes, two freshmen played for Richland in its opening tournament, the Hanford Invite. But both Kristin Strankman and Hope Neidhold, the daughter of Bombers football coach (and Hanford girls golf coach) Mike Neidhold, have extensive junior golf experience.
"No, I don't worry about losing my spot," David said, smiling. And since she led the Bombers to the Hanford title with a 14-over 86 score at Horn Rapids, she has little reason to worry.
"But there's not really a top dog on this team," she continued. "I'm aware I have to work on my game. It definitely makes you concentrate and try harder. You know you can't really goof around."
Bombers coach Janet Schuster has the enviable task of sorting through this wealth of talent to winnow it down to six golfers for CBBN matches and five for most invites.
To do so, the team plays two nine-hole rounds to determine the intramural pecking order. For the Hanford Invite, it wasn't too difficult because two of her top returners -- juniors Madison Hamm, an All-Area selection a year ago, and Ariel Culverhouse -- were out for medical reasons.
But this week, both are back to join four other All-Area returners -- David, senior Brittney Zier (a transfer from Eisenhower a year ago), junior Gina Ojeda and sophomore Mary McDonald -- the two freshmen and honorable-mention all-leaguer White to battle for those coveted spots.
"Somebody is going to have to stay home, and it gets intense," Schuster said. "But we wouldn't be as good as we are if we didn't have the competition on the team, if they didn't have to work hard every day to get to where we are."
Schuster was worried about the end of the season battle for the five district berths, but a change in the CBBN qualifying rules should ease those concerns.
Besides the five lowest gross totals from pod play per team, the next 11 top golfers who are in the top 33 overall in league matches will gain spots in the district field. So conceivably, the Bombers could send all nine of their top golfers to districts.
The final number of qualifiers from the CBBN for the state tournament at Sun Willows won't be known until early April, but last spring three Bombers (McDonald, David and Hamm) made the field, and it would be a surprise if at least that many didn't qualify this year.
David said the players don't let the intense competition on the course affect their friendships off it.
"We're a pretty tight-knit team," she said.
And this year, it's also a pretty big team.
