Parents can sometimes, okay often times, exaggerate the accomplishments of their children. Especially when it comes to athletics. So you will have to forgive Interlake golf coach Doug Calvert for being slightly skeptical when he first heard about Aleana Groenhout.

“Her dad told me how far she could drive the ball and I didn’t believe him, to be honest,” Calvert admits. But after watching Groenhout drive the ball some 230 yards down course, all the doubts washed away.

The freshman has consistently been the low shooter for the Saints this season and has set a new career-best mark of 46 for nine holes, which she has shot twice. But it hasn’t come easy.

After playing golf as a youth, Groenhout took her eighth grade year away from the course to play fastpitch softball. That is, until a stress-fracture in her foot made it too difficult to get back on the diamond this spring for coach Sarah Brown and the Saints softball team.

Initially, Groenhout said she struggled with several aspects of playing varsity golf. The competition is steeper, with several players able to match or better her own background in the game and offseason regimen. The season itself is unpredictable, completely at the mercy of the weather and as a freshman, Groenhout has faced stronger, more experienced players on a weekly basis.

“I didn’t think the competition would be as fierce as it was,” Groenhout said, but also added that it is exciting to be around other players who take a similar approach to the game as she does. “[as a freshman] You’re the tiny kid and there are a lot of people that are better than you, but it’s more fun.”

Groenhout and Calvert have seen the improvement in her game over the course of the year and it looks as though it is now rounding into form.

“Practice will be over and she stays and putts, or does some chipping or hits some balls into the net,” Calvert said. Groenhout said she spends sometimes more than two hours per day on the course, which has paid off for her ever-improving short game. Calvert also mentioned the crew and golf pros at Tam o’Shanter, where Groenhout is a member, as helpful in assisting not only Groenhout but all his players.

Another critical element to her improvement is the development of a short-term memory. With the sometimes intensely frustrating nature of the game, it is easy for younger players to let the combination of pressure to perform and a poor shot or hole overtake them, often rendering them helpless for the rest of the round or tournament. That is something Groenhout has fought all year to overcome.

“After a bad hole, you have to shake it off,” Groenhout said. Calvert added, “At the beginning of the year, she would play a bad hole and get really down on herself but she’s really getting better about that.”

As for what comes next, well that still remains unsettled.

Groenhout will be faced with a tough choice next year, to either continue to develop her golf game or return to the diamond. It is clear where Calvert stands on the issue.

“I’m hoping to win her to the sport based on what I think she can do,” Calvert said. “If she really made golf her thing, which is hard because she’s a multi-sport athlete, I think that state playoffs and even playing in college could be the potential for her.”