Jordanne Barr just turned in a remarkable season as a junior on the Frontier High School golf team. She’s not about to rest on her laurels.
“I’m going to put in hours every day,” said Barr, The Californian’s All-Area Girls Golfer of the Year. “I plan on peaking in college and see where it takes me.”
Barr said she hasn’t reached her potential. She’s only been playing the sport for three years.
“I think I can become a really great player,” she said.
Even though the high school season has ended, Barr is intensifying her golf time.
She frequently enters weekend tournaments in Southern California where she matches up against top junior players from throughout the Southland.
“My goals right now are to improve as much as I can and start winning tournaments out of town,” Barr said. “I’m usually finishing in the top 10 or top 5, but I have only one win. ... I’m right there, but most of these girls have been playing since they were 5 or 6, so I’m just catching up with them now.”
She dominated play during the high school season:
• She led Kern County with a 78.3 stroke average in the regular season.
• She shot 73 to win the South Area meet by three strokes.
• She had an 80 to lead all local players in the Central Section team championships to lead Frontier to its second straight Division II title.
• She shot 78 at the Central Section Individual Championships to tie for eighth place.
• She had a 3-over-par 75 for the best local score at the Southern California Regional Championships, 10 strokes better than any other local player and two strokes from a playoff for a berth at the state meet.
Barr improved her stroke average by 11 strokes from her sophomore year.
“She’s really competitive,” Frontier coach Tony Bernardin said. “She doesn’t want to lose, and she doesn’t mind doing what it takes to win.”
Bernardin said that includes lifting weights with her father in their garage and practicing golf seven days a week, weather permitting.
“The other day she couldn’t get out to the golf course because it was raining, and she was really upset,” Bernardin said.
Before golf, Barr said she was a dancer and gymnast. “That gave me balance,” she said.
Barr also played drums in the band. But now there’s no time for that because of golf.
“I don’t have a life outside of golf,” Barr said. “I don’t have the distractions a lot of teenagers have. I want to do the best I can in golf and not leave any stone unturned.”