Competing at state Port Aransas High School student Kelsey Ortiz takes a swing during the University Interscholastic League’s state 1A high school golf tournament at Morris Williams Golf Course in Austin. The tournament was May 9 and 10. COURTESY PHOTO BY CHRISTIE ORTIZ Even when Kelsey Ortiz was just about 10 years old, she was swinging golf clubs – little ones made especially for kids. She hit balls around her family’s back yard.

Now she’s a Port Aransas High School senior who this week took 17th place (out of 48 competitors) while representing her school at the University Interscholastic League’s 1A high school state golf tournament at Morris Williams Golf Course in Austin. The competition was held May 9 and 10.

“I definitely could have played better,” Ortiz said. “But it was a great experience, nonetheless. Not many people can say that they’ve gone to state.”

KELSEY ORTIZ Going into the tournament, Ortiz was excited.

“Kind of nervous, though, because I’ve always gone to (tournaments) with my team,” said before the competition began. “So, to go by myself is really nerve-wracking. But I think it will be a blast.”

Ortiz finished a two-day regional tourney April 18 to 19 with a total score of 182. She took fourth place among 86 girls in the tournament. She was the only member of the PAHS team who qualified for the state meet.

Ortiz is the daughter of Mike and Christie Ortiz.

An avid golfer, Mike Ortiz introduced his daughter to the game when she was about 10. That was when the family lived in Salado, north of Austin.

Kelsey Ortiz took part in a few kids’ golf camps when she was a youngster and played in her first tournament, at Onion Creek Club in Austin, when she was in eighth grade.

That was about the time she started really getting in- terested in the game.

“I realized it was something I should play and get good at, because it’s something you can do for the rest of your life,” she said. “I want to go into architecture and construction science, and so it’s something I can take to the business table, like when there’s golf tournaments and stuff.”

Ortiz and her family moved to Port Aransas when she was starting her first year of high school.

In addition to playing for PAHS, she has played in summer tournaments run for youngsters by the Professional Golfers’ Association.

Ortiz has enjoyed the game more and more as she’s gotten older.

“I like that it’s something where you can get away from the rest of the world,” she said. “It’s a quiet sport. You don’t have to deal with screaming, obnoxious people, like in a basketball game.”

But don’t get her wrong. She likes basketball. She has been on the PAHS Lady Marlins’ basketball team for the past three years, and she loved it, she said. An almost-straight-A student, she was selected this spring by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches for the All-State Academic basketball team.

Ortiz said she tends to score in the mid-80s at most golf courses when she’s been in a practicing mode.

What’s her key to playing well?

“Keeping my composure,” she said, “and not letting one bad shot get to me.”

Questions? Com- ments? Contact Dan Parker at ( 361) 749- 5131 or dan@portasouthjetty.com.