When Dori Carter walks onto the practice range at Reynolds Lake Oconee, she often looks to see if there is a young girl hitting balls. If possible, she will take an open spot right next to the girl and start her practice routine, smile at the girl and strike up a conversation, usually with, “Are you having fun?”
Carter, a newcomer to the Reynolds Lake Oconee community, remembers being that little girl. Although she is now playing the LPGA Tour, at age 24 Carter is not too far removed from her junior golf days – one day, in particular, when a tour pro impacted her life dramatically.
In 1997, Carter was a 10-year-old in the gallery at a Futures Tour event, where she and a friend had followed leader Heather Daly-Donofrio throughout the final round. At the 18th tee, with a five-shot lead, Daly-Donofrio asked if one of the girls wanted to carry her bag for the final hole. Carter jumped at the chance.
Not only did she get to feel what it was like being inside the ropes, but she still has a photo from that day, which Daly-Donofrio signed, “Dori, Thanks for being my favorite caddy. I hope we can do it again. Lots of luck.”
“What Heather did that day meant so much to me,” Carter said. I didn’t know anything about the tour or Heather,” Carter recalls, “but on that day, I knew I wanted to be like her.”
And now she is. “Every time I see any girl golfer, I want to say something to her,” said Carter, who turned pro in 2010 and wound up winning on the Futures Tour. “I remember that day Heather spoke to me and I carried the bag. It makes you want to leave the game better than when you got there. Reynolds Lake Oconee is a great place to do that.”
So, on Oct. 29, Carter hosted what she hopes will be the first in a series of special youth golf clinic at the National Course.
Carter, who grew up in Valdosta, was offered the opportunity to live in a home on Bennett Springs Drive through her uncle, Joe Carter, who is a sales executive with the company Reynolds Lake Oconee. Although technically she is only “house-sitting” through the end of the year, Carter said, “I am planning to be here as long as I can. With my family in Georgia, the airport an hour away, I have everything here. I am really glad to call Reynolds Lake Oconee my home.”
Because of her travel schedule on the LPGA Tour, Carter spends a lot of time on the road, so when she is at Reynolds Lake Oconee, the quiet and solitude of Lake Oconee – not to mention the world-class golf courses and practice facilities – are an ideal mix.
“Everyone here is extremely nice,” Carter said of the Reynolds community. “I have not met as many people as I would like, but I have great neighbors and I have been able to play golf with a ton of people.”
One of those people Carter often plays golf with is Bunky Henry, a golf professional on staff at the Reynolds Golf Academy, who also grew up in Valdosta and was a friend of Carter’s grandfather. “I have a lot of respect for Dori’s game,” says Henry, 67, whose wallet has been lightened a couple times by Carter. “She has huge potential. I hope she will be able to realize it. She is just a pleasure to be around at Reynolds, and to have her here is an asset to the whole community.”
In a sense, Reynolds Lake Oconee sort of became Carter’s home on the road this year. When she played in the LPGA Championship in Rochester, N.Y., Carter stayed at the home of Bob Sansone, who has a vacation home at Reynolds Lake Oconee. “It couldn’t have turned out better,” Carter said.
The only thing better would have been for Carter to make the cut. Her rookie year has been a struggle, competitively. A former star at Mississippi, Carter made the cut only twice in her first six events, which meant she faces a tough challenge toward keeping her LPGA card for 2012. Her game showed signs of life in July, however, when she won the Georgia Women’s Open in a playoff.
Carter understands what it takes. She knew that as a rookie, she would be limited on the number of events she could play – unless she excelled right away to be high enough on the LPGA Tour’s numbering system.
“It’s my job,” Carter said. “I can only prepare the best I can and let it happen. But even on my worst day, I am living my dream. There are a lot of people out there who would like to do that.”
Maybe even a few young girls on the Reynolds Lake Oconee practice range.
