Last week, the annual Fore State Championship was held at the Ledgestone golf course in Branson, Mo.
Great Bend native Kristy Straub competed in the championship for her fourth time having also competed in 1999, 2008 and 2009.
The tournament has been running for 16 years. It is a team competition held every year against one team from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas. In 16 years, Kansas has never won the championship, Straub said.
That changed this year.
After three days of golf, the ten women of the Kansas state team won the state’s first Fore State Championship. Kansas finished in first with thirteen and a half team points. Arkansas fell one point short with twelve and half. Further behind was Missouri with eight and Oklahoma, who won the 2009 Fore State Championship, finished last with six.
“The golf course was beautiful, which made it a fun course to play,” Straub said. “I have been saying it would be so great to be on that Kansas team that finally won.  It was very exciting to help make that happen.”
To qualify for the Fore State Championship, a golfer has to put in a top ten finish at the Kansas Amateur Championship. If one or more of the top ten finishers are unable to attend, then the captain of the team chooses who she thinks will be good for the team. That is how Straub got onto the team.
The championship is separated into two days and follows a similar format as the Ryder Cup. The first day starts with 18 holes of fourball match play with a partner. Basically, players are paired together and each plays their own ball. After each hole, the lower score between the two partners is the team’s score for the hole. Each pair that wins a round earns a point for their team.
Straub was paired with Elise Houtz, a golfer from Kansas State, for the first round. The pair beat their opponents 5&4, meaning they went up by 5 points with only four holes to play making it impossible for the other pair to win.
“The first round with my partner Elise Houtz was my best finish,” Straub said. “We won 5&4, and with the heat as hot and humid as it was, it was great to get done early and get ready for the next round.”
Following that on the first day is 18 holes of alternate shot match play also with a partner. Again, the team is paired up. This time, the partners play the same ball alternating shots. The partners also trade teeing off every other hole to prevent one player from driving the ball every hole.
For the second round, Straub was paired with Jayhawk golfer Jennifer Clark. Straub and Clark ended the second round two points ahead of their competition with only one hole left.
Day two is individual match play.
“The win was definitely not a sure thing,” Straub said. “We came out of day one with a pretty big lead and were feeling good, but on day two there are 10 points out there for each team to win.
“No one was out of it. Arkansas played great on day two and came back to within one of us. It came down to a couple of matches late in the day to determine the champions.”
Straub will compete in the USGA Mid-Amateur Qualifier at the Wichita Country Club on Sept. 1st. cutIf she qualifies, she will go back to the Wichita Country Club at the end of September to compete in the USGA Mid-Amateur Championship.