Caroline High School senior Cate Cooper has carried on what has become a tradition among women in Cavalier golf, started by Gabby Rivera, who graduated in 2015 with a scholarship to Chowan University.
Cooper began golfing at the age of five. She said she enjoyed the times with her father as they played every other weekend, and she soon found the quiet nature of the game a great stress reliever.
She was in middle school when she made the decision to get serious about golf. At the time Cooper was shooting in the low 90’s. It was at this point she began tournament play, which provided a wealth of experience. She recalled the tournament season began in November and ended in March, taking up many of her weekends. After middle school she was invited to try out for the Caroline High School golf team and was a starter her freshman year.
In the ninth grade, Cooper began taking weekly lessons from Bobby Lopez, PGA professional at Pendleton Golf Course in Ruther Glen. Coaching from Lopez brought consistency to Cooper’s game. He got to know her personality and structured her lessons to center on her swing and focus.
By the end of her junior year, Cooper was consistently shooting in the low 80’s and the years of practice paid off this past season. At the Conference Tournament in Culpeper, she shot an 85, which placed her in the top six in the conference as well as qualifying her to go to the regional tournament in Virginia Beach. The regional tournament was not her best game, shooting in the high 80’s, she said. Participating in a zone qualifier, she placed sixth out of 20 golfers, which qualified her for another trip to Virginia Beach for the state tournament. There she shot an 84 both days. Her performance placed her among the top 40 in a field of 61.
An A-B student, Cooper plans after graduation to attend Germanna Community College for two years and then enroll in a school where she can study radiology. She has set her sights on the Richmond Country Club Tournament, a stepping stone into the LPGA.
Cooper said that golf continues to be calming and fun. Even though her high school career is over, she still is coached by Lopez and practices both at the driving range and at home using a net designed to help work on her swing. Currently, she said, her game is 60 percent mental and 40 percent fundamentals.
When asked how far she wanted to go with her golf game, Cooper replied, “I want to go as far as I can make it.”
-CP Correspondent Scott Richards
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