George Rogers Clark junior Joy Lisle was a cheerleader until she put her talents to use on the golf course.

She started in seventh grade because she was influenced by a friend and decided to give it a try.

Lisle said her coach is her biggest motivator.

“He is the only one who is normally the only one allowed to talk to us while we are playing,” she said. “I have to get his advice more than others. Even when I am playing bad, he reminds me that the past holes do not matter and what really matters is how I will play in the future. Towards the end of the tournament if I am not doing well, he tells me to just have fun. He is also good at working with us one-on-one with what we individually need to get better at during practice.”

Lisle said golf has been unique to her because of how important it is to play as an individual helps out the whole team.

“During tournaments, you are not with your team at all,” she said. “Before we play, we all huddle up and encourage each other because we will not see each other until we are finished playing most of the time. The team is so positive throughout the entire season because although golf can be an individual sport, we all want to see each other succeed just as much as we want ourselves to.”

Lisle said her best aspect of the game is how hard she works.

“I am good at pushing myself to my limits,” she said. “I always try to listen to my coach and forget about how I played and focus on how I can finish a tournament out strong.”

Lisle said she wants to work on not putting as much pressure on herself, but wants to focus on what comes naturally.

“Sometimes it can be an entire week before I get my swing and golf game back to how it was before,” she said. “It is hard to not be tough on yourself when you know you are not playing as well as you can. I want to work on knowing things come with time and be patient with my game. Everybody goes into slumps sometimes, but it is how you recover from them is most important.”

Lisle said her goal as a golfer is to improve every time she is out on the course.

“I really try to play outside of tournaments and team practices,” she said. “Sometimes you have to step away from what you are used to see what you need to improve on. I make time so I can see what I do right and wrong.”