Madison Brown provides steady leadership for Rampart girls golf

COLORADO SPRINGS – Madison Brown remembers exactly where and when she fell in love with golf.

She was five years old and it was when she hung around with her dad at Pine Creek Golf Club in northern Colorado Springs. The start of her playing days can be traced back to there.

Now as a senior for the Rams, she’s enjoying a good senior year and got to have one last moment of nostalgia at the very place she took to the game. At Tuesday’s Pine Creek Invite, Brown shot a 6-over-par 78 to finish third on the leaderboard. The Pine Creek Invite was naturally played at Pine Creek Golf Club.

Although she finished behind Discovery Canyon’s Emily Cheng (69) and Cheyenne Mountain’s Ava Schroeder (76), she couldn’t help but smile when thinking about the round she had and where she had it.

“It feels really sweet and I feel like I’ve worked really hard,” she said. “To see where I started (as a kid) and now I’m not whiffing the ball! It’s great to be able to come out and do what I did today.”

She has certainly come a long way since she was a kid but she’s also come a long way just this season. She started the year shooting 87 at the Fountain-Fort Carson Invite at Cheyenne Shadows and struggled a bit on the Blue Course at Eisenhower Golf Club at the Air Force Academy where she walked off with a 95.

Since then, she rebounded with a 79 at Kissing Camels then a season-best 78 at Pine Creek. Part of the reason is that she is routinely grouped with players that she knows well and forces her get around the course a little more efficiently just stay in line with some of the top players in Class 5A and 4A.

“The competition drives me to play better,” she said. “We’re all friends but we all push each other make each other better so we can get each other to that level.”

The Pikes Peak Athletic Conference doesn’t lack for competition. Cheng has emerged and one of the top players in the state and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Schroeder finished in the top 10 of the 4A state tournament at Tiara Rado in June.

For Brown to hang with the players of their caliber says a lot about where her game is at this point of the season. And playing against some of the best in the state, regardless of classification, will play a major role in the success that she hopes to have later in the year.

“I’m glad that she plays with upper-level 4A kids,” Morris said. “When we hit Denver, it’s a whole new ballgame. It’s a different world up there.”

Morris thinks that playing against these top PPAC schools helps her stay even keeled when playing against girls that she’s not familiar with. But a big part of that has to do with her overall mentality. She can only control what she does on the course, but she understands that the team’s success will certainly play a role in her own.

“She’s one of the best leaders I’ve ever had,” Morris said. “She’s there for the other girls and even if she doesn’t play well, she’ll stick around and is a good leader for the team.”

She’s also a little bit like every other golfer on the planet. He favorite part of the game right now is her work off the tee with her driver. But that has the ability to change on a regular basis. Such is the way of life when trying to hit a golf ball.

But for now, the driver is helping her enjoy her senior season as much as she can.

“I’m hitting it far,” she says with laugh.

That makes the game fun for anyone. If she can maintain that distance and work around the greens as well as she did at Pine Creek, she’ll have a chance to hit some quality golf shots while playing in the state tournament.