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more on emma from todays sunday daily independent


More on Emma

Emma Talley, the Caldwell County High School sophomore who lost the state golf championship because of a scorecard error last week, actually does have some ties to Ashland.

Emma played in the past two NRP Bluegrass Junior Invitationals at Bellefonte Country Club, finishing second this summer and fourth in 2008, according to Tom Cooksey.

In 2008, she was given the Cameron Weis Memorial Sportsmanship Award.

Talley, who won the state golf title as a freshman, was on the way to championship No. 2 on Sunday. She was six strokes ahead of the competition when she finished.

However, when the scores were posted, she noticed something wasn’t quite right. She had a bogey on the 18th hole and had marked down a par score.

Emma and her father went to tournament officials and after a brief meeting they came back with the devastating news that she had to be disqualified.

Not only did Talley lose the state tournament, she also lost the Miss Golf title that is based on points system. She needed to finish no higher than 10th at the state tournament to win that award.

But because of the DQ, her points weren’t enough to claim Miss Golf.

Sacred Heart golfer Lindsay Gahm, who won the title because of Talley’s DQ, tried to give the trophy back to her at the ceremony.

Talley stayed at the tournament and actually re-interviewed with a western Kentucky television station after learning about the scorecard error.

Cooksey, one of the state’s premier rules experts, said the correct decision was made in regards to the USGA Rules of Golf.

This isn’t the first time that Talley has brought a penalty to the attention of a tournament official.

In last year’s regional tournament, she called a penalty stroke on herself when she went to putt a ball and it moved, according to an e-mail from Kim Farmer, an assistant AD at Caldwell County. Talley had not “officially” addressed the ball, but had addressed it for the way she was going to putt it. She called the rule official herself and took the penalty.

Talley also faced the music at school the following day even though she knew there would be a lot of questions from friends.

“Emma’s integrity, morals and values are unspeakable,” Farmer wrote in the e-mail.

I couldn’t agree more.