Tees for two

Meet Savana and Sierra Bezdicek in the hallway at school, or while they’re making rounds at the shopping mall, and they might appear to be nothing more than a couple of well-mannered, ordinary young girls.

Strap a set of clubs on their shoulders and send them off the first tee at any golf course, however, and they will most likely fall well short of ordinary – not in character or athletic ability, mind you, but in the scores they post.

The Bezdicek sisters, from Colbert, have emerged this summer as two of the most dominant junior golfers in recent memory, turning in some incredibly low numbers and winning nearly every tournament they’ve entered.

Savana, 13, finished first in the 12- to 13-year-old division in three of the four Washington Junior Golf Association District 5 events she entered, and on two occasions, bettered the 18-hole score of the 16-17 winner.

The soon-to-be eighth-grader at Northwood Middle School also won the District Championship at the University of Idaho Golf Course with a 36-hole total of 76-77—153 that was nine clear of the 12-13 field and just one stroke off the winning total in the 16-17 age group.

She slipped to third at the WJGA State Championship at Fircrest Golf Club after a poor putting round left her at 78-78-82—238, but bounced back to capture her age-group title in the 18-hole Idaho Golf Association Junior Championship at Foxtail Golf Course in Meridian by four strokes. Earlier this month, she won the 12-14 division in the Banner Bank Invitational at Walla Walla Country Club by 14 strokes after shooting a two-over-par 74.

Remarkably, her younger sister, Sierra, who turned 12 on Saturday, has been even more dominant, capturing the 8-11 age-group titles in all four sub-district events, winning the District Championship by 10 strokes and the State Championship by 14.

Sierra’s only slip came at the Idaho state tournament, where she shot 77 and finished second to Meridian’s Ryleigh Moore.

“They’ve both had amazing years,” said WJGA District Five Tournament Director Allen Hatley. “They’re both the real deal.”

Not surprisingly, the Bezdicek’s success is not the result of happenstance.

Their father, Randy, has spent tens of thousands of dollars making sure his daughters have access to everything they need to succeed at the sport they love.

Bezdicek, who is part-owner of Northwest Radon, recently completed construction of a short-iron range that includes a tee platform with two hitting mats, several sand target greens and a small pond into which Savana and Sierra can chip floating golf balls.

The girls, he explained, earn quarters for hitting the target greens and dollar bills for hitting a ball into one of the five-gallon pails that hold the flag sticks.

“It’s been a work in progress, and still is,” Bezdicek said of the range he built in the backyard of the family’s modest farm house. “We started with the little pond and a 5 by 5 (foot) square target and hit floaters into that. But then I built a 50-yard target green over the apple tree, another 70-yarder at the barn and a 100, where you have to shoot down the draw.”

In addition, Bezdicek has built a tiltable two-hole putting green in his living room so his daughters can work on their putting and chipping during the winter.

“It has paid great dividends,” he said of his time and money investments.

And Kathy Jensen, who has worked with Bezdicek’s daughters for the past three years, can attest to that as well as anyone.

“They’re doing awesome,” said Jensen, an assistant pro at Deer Park Golf Course who helps tune the girls’ swings each spring and then “tweaks” them, as needed, throughout the summer. “And one of the reasons why they’re so excellent, and will continue to be, is because all they do is practice their shot game – putting and chipping.

“Under pressure, because they repeat that so much, they’re just phenomenal. When they’re facing a pressure shot or a playoff situation in a tournament, neither one is blinkin’ an eye.”

Jensen said the two sisters have completely different personality types and body builds.

Savana, she explained, is wispy thin, low-keyed and quiet, while Sierra, who also plays soccer and basketball, is a “spunky type,” with a more athletic build and an aggressive personality. “I treat both kids differently, but I have a lot of fun with them,” Jensen said. “Savana is so coordinated, and even though she’s so thin, she can hit the ball 255-260 yards. She’s a little twig who can just pound it.

“She’s a pretty casual gal, though, so I have to be on her to attack on every shot. I tell her, ‘You can be as lazy and lackadaisical as you want – in between shots,’ because when she takes charge, it’s beautiful to watch.”

Sierra, on the other hand, needs no motivational speeches.

“She’s focused, she’s got tunnel vision,” Jensen said of Sierra, who will be a sixth -grader at Midway Elementary. “She’s knows where she’s going to go and how she plans to get there. That’s just her personality.

“She’s a go-getter with a ton of natural athletic ability, so I kind of let her go.”

Bezdicek agrees with Jensen’s assessment of his daughters’ personality differences.

“This one’s my worker,” he said, nodding toward Sierra.

“And she’s the one I have to bribe,” he added, nodding toward Savana. “With her, I have to say, ‘You can either hit balls or do the dishes,’ whereas Sierra will take four or five bucks off me (hitting at targets) before the bus comes in the morning to take her to school.”

Bezdicek estimates he spends an average of $1,000 a week when he takes his daughters to regional tournaments, and has no idea how many miles he has put on the family van since they started golfing competitively. His wife, Barbara, an executive assistant to the vice president at a local bank branch, is forced to choose which tournaments she wants to attend.

As for Bezdicek, he calls his involvement in his radon company a “god-send.”

“I’ve got my office on my hip,” he explained, pointing to his cell phone. “I’m the administrator, and my partners do the field installations. I can do my part during the day just answering calls and scheduling, which is very conducive to the amount of time this (golf) thing takes.”

Despite the demands that golf puts on their social lives, both girls seem well-adjusted and still a long way from burning out on the sport – or their father.

“At times, it really takes you down, because you get in slumps,” Sierra said. “But there are days I’m still amazed I can do that good, or that bad. And, overall, I do still enjoy it.”

Added Savana: “She’s right, and I had my slump at (Washington) state. But I still like competing, too, especially against the older girls, to see where I’m going to stack up when I get in high school.”

Jensen, for one, is convinced both girls will do quite well at that level, admitting she hasn’t worked with junior golfers with as much potential in a long time.

“I’ve helped kids get to college and stuff, but not this early and with this kind of excitement,” she said. “They already have college people looking at them. They can’t touch them yet, but at the Washington juniors, they’re all over the place. And they already know who Sierra and Savana are.

“And in that group of Washington and Idaho junior, they all know Sierra and Savana, too – even the boys and older girls.”

Bezdicek and his two daughters are in Ocean Shores this weekend to compete in the 52nd-annual Pacific Northwest Junior Girls Amateur at Ocean Shores Golf Course – a match-play event without age protection.

“This is probably the biggest event we’ve chased,” Bezdicek said. “This is kind of getting Savana and Sierra ready for next year, when we’re going to start qualifying for the USGA events, the women’s junior amateur and the women’s amateur – all of the big ones.

“We’re going to try, if nothing more, to just gain experience so as they both get older and more mature they say, ‘I’ve been there and done that, so let’s get it on,’ and go tee it up against the older gals.

“We’ll keep plodding along. I don’t know where it’s all going, but I know it has been fun.”