A Gifted Golfer: Clarksville’s Savannah Gereaux Excels On The Green
by Janice Penix
It’s no surprise that Savannah Gereaux is a talented golfer.
A sophomore at Clarksville High School who was one of the top underclassmen at the 4A State Golf Tournament this year, Gereaux has been riding around in a golf cart since she was three years old.
As a child, she could frequently be seen next to her grandfather, Al (June Bug) Davis, as he navigated the greens at Clarksville Country Club. The two formed a bond as the senior golfer shared his knowledge with his young granddaughter.
“When I first got hired at Clarksville, my first interactions with Savannah were her riding around in June Bug’s red, ‘glitterfied’ golf cart,” CHS Golf Coach Nicole Possage said. “Savannah comes from a great line of golfers.”
But Gereaux said she didn’t consider the sport seriously until her freshman year, when she decided to join the Lady Panther golf team.
“I went to the golf course when I was around like three or four, and my grandpa would just take me out to the putting green and he would just make me putt over and over again,” she said. “But the first time I actually like started getting into golf was probably the summer before my freshman year, when I really started getting into it for the high school team.”
Gereaux comes from a long line of golfers. In addition to her grandfather, her mother, Amber, is also a skilled player who has also been instrumental in helping her daughter excel. But Gereaux said her success has not come without a lot of hard work.
“When I first started, I wasn’t that good,” she said. “But I started practicing a lot over the summer, and that’s when I started getting better. I’d never played any matches before, I just kind of practiced with my mom and grandpa.
“It kind of came easy, in a way, because I grew up around it. But at first, I was not good and I had to really practice, over and over again. Golf never really just comes easy.”
Gereaux said being around the golf course as a young child helped increase her understanding of the game.
“I definitely had an understanding of it because I’ve been out there with my mom so much,” she said. “So it wasn’t like I was new to the sport entirely, but it was definitely a lot of time that I had to put into it.”
Some skills came easier to her than others, she said.
“At first, I could drive the ball like really well,” Gereaux said. “This summer, I was hitting good drives off the tee box. So that came pretty easily. But at first, I could not hit my irons for anything, and putting was a big struggle too.”
She said she has worked to improve in both areas, as well as to have a better attitude and mentality when it comes to her game.
“Probably the most challenging thing is definitely your mental game,” she said. “You can be the best golfer in the world, but if you have the worst attitude, you’re not going to succeed at the sport. Because you can have one bad shot and then turn it into nine bad holes. So if you don’t get your attitude adjusted, like, right there, it’s just going to affect how you play for the rest of the day.”
Maintaining a good attitude and focus was key for her when she competed at the state tournament earlier this month. She finished 13th out of 61 golfers and was the top underclassman, spending much of the tournament inside the top 10 among a strong field of senior golfers. Prior to the state tournament, Gereaux was the runner-up at the 4-4A District Tournament and helped lead the Lady Panthers to a first-place finish.
“It’s definitely more stressful being with upperclassmen all the time at matches, because whenever we’re asking what grade each other are in, I’m the only one that’s ever a sophomore,” she said. “I usually play with seniors. So it definitely makes me a lot more anxious when I’m playing because I always want to be the best at what I do. And when I’m playing with upperclassmen, I just think that I always have a disadvantage.
“Being able to compete as good as I am for how young I am is a confidence boost for me. And it shows how much I can improve over the next two years, if I just put in the work.”
Gereaux balances two other school activities in addition to golf. She is a CHS cheerleader and member of the Lady Panther volleyball team. With a full schedule on her calendar, she said her friends and fellow golfers keep her anchored…The full story appears in the Oct. 22 edition of The Graphic, found online and in businesses throughout Franklin and Johnson counties.
Savannah Gereaux (Photo courtesy Amber Canada Photography)
