GODFREY - Edwardsville senior golfer Riley Burns played well in helping the Tigers end in a first-place tie with O'Fallon at the Alton Scramble/Shamble Kickoff tournament Saturday afternoon at Godfrey's Rolling Hills Golf Course, with both Edwardsville and the Panthers shooting 207 to share the championship honors at the opening tournament of the season.
Burns, who recently signed a letter-of-intent to attend Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo., felt she played fairly well, and enjoyed more success on one part of the course than another.
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"I did decent," Burns said in an interview that was conducted shortly after completing her round. "I did better on one nine than the other, but I had a lot of fun."
Consistency is one of the keys to her game, and on Saturday, she felt she was better on the back nine than from the front.
"I think on the back nine, I was able to stay more consistent with my shots than I was on the front nine," Burns said.
The most important thing to Burns was just being able to play in a high school sporting event, the first since mid-March with the Illinois High School Association boys Class 3A and 4A sectionals, as the tournaments later that week, along later with the entire spring sporting seasons, cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Yes, I'm very thankful," Burns said. "Going into my senior year, I was really worried whether we would have a season or not, so no matter how it looks, whether we're traveling or not traveling, I'm glad we still have a season, and play."
Burns worked on her mental game during the summer, and hope that it will help her tremendously as the season progresses.
"I'd like to maintain my mental game," Burns said. "I fixed it a lot over the summer; it was always the weakest part of my game. And I finally found a good spot with it, and I'd like to maintain that for this season."
Burns is usually a long hitter off the tees, but it's her short game that's her bread and butter.
"I'm pretty long off the tee," Burns said, "but my iron shots and my approach shots are usually the best part of my game."
Burns is looking forward to October and a possible postseason.
"Hopefully, if we do have a postseason, we'd all love to go to state for a second time again this coming year," Burns said.
But if there's no IHSA postseason series, Burns agreed that the important thing was just getting a chance to go out and play. And if there's indeed no postseason, a Southwestern Conference championship would be just as good.
"Yes, we'd also love to take that, too," Burns said.
