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By Jay Spivey 

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — Golf is a tough sport mentally.  

But for senior Sadie Mecham of the West Forsyth girls golf team, that’s perfectly fine with her. In fact, she welcomes the distraction.  

Mecham, 17, has been playing golf since she was 8 or 9 years old. It’s stuck with her since then.  

“My dad plays golf and he just brought me into it at a young age,” she said. “And I started doing like First Tee clinics and stuff.” 

She even tagged along with her dad when he played.  

“It was fun,” Mecham said. “I think as a little kid you’re just like getting out on the golf course. I mean, it’s just a really fun experience. You’re outside. You’re getting to swing the golf club and enjoy it. It was a really fun experience just getting introduced to the sport.” 

Mecham even had her own set of children’s golf clubs at that age. 

“I feel like, it’s definitely different,” she said. “Like, I feel like I’ve gotten more comfortable and into my swing. And I’ve obviously got way different golf clubs now.” 

It wasn’t long before Mecham wasn’t just doing golf for fun. She realized she was pretty good at it. 

“I was about 12 when I started doing tournaments…,” she said. “…My dad signed me up for a local TYGA (Tarheel Youth Golf Association) tournament and that was my first exposure to tournaments.” 

She even remembers playing in that first tournament as a pre-teen. 

“My first tournament was at Maple Chase, which is a golf course right here,” Mecham said. “So, I played a lot of local tournaments.” 

Those early years of playing tournament golf was a learning experience.  

“It was really crazy at first,” Mecham said. “I just didn’t know what to expect, right. Like, all I had done was practicing and showing up and competing against other people, and like counting every single stroke. It’s just a whole different experience.” 

No doubt that experience has helped her as a senior for the Titans, as well as still competing in youth tournaments.  

“The more practice you get in tournaments the calmer and more used to it I am,” Mecham said.  

She also had a chance to compete against top-notch competition even at a young age. 

“That helps a lot,” Mecham said. “It’s really great to be competing against someone around my skill level. All of that’s helpful, too. But when you’re competing against someone better than you, you can kind of measure yourself up and be like, ‘Hey, that’s what I want to be playing like.’ 

“Like, I’ve played with girls who drive the ball farther than me, and I’m like, ‘Well, I really need to work on my driving.’” 

Something clicked for Mecham early on at West Forsyth with former Coach Bill Walwik, who was the head coach at West Forsyth Mecham’s freshman and sophomore seasons.  

“I feel like my freshman year of high school was really well,” she said. “It started off not so great and then as the season progressed it just got better and better.” 

However, she doesn’t live in the West Forsyth district. She went to Wiley Middle School and lives in the Reynolds district.  

“My parents talked to me about the academic quality of the schools and the sports teams,” Mecham said. “And just looking at it all around at other schools.” 

She and her parents had to make a choice. 

“I felt like it was tough in the beginning,” Mecham said. “But I felt like once I made the choice I was like, yeah, I know this is the right place for me.” 

Deciding to go to West Forsyth is when the bulb in her head turned on. 

“It was cool because it just kind of happened all of a sudden,” Mecham said. “Like, I’d been practicing for years and putting in a lot of time, and for this to finally have like be all worth it almost was really cool.” 

She actually fared well as a freshman in the NCHSAA Class 4-A state championship at Pinehurst No. 5. She finished tied for 42nd with a two-day total of 165. Morgan Ketchum of Reagan won the tournament at 140. Reagan won the tournament at 2 over, 15 shots better than runner-up Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons. West Forsyth finished at 51 over.  

As a sophomore in 2022, Mecham didn’t fare as well in the state championship at Pinehurst No. 6 and finished tied for 65th with a two-day total of 192, well back of winner Elizabeth Rudisill of Charlotte Myers Park, who finished at 134. West Forsyth finished sixth as a team at 80 over, and Southern Pines Pinecrest won at 35 over. 

“I feel like it really clicked at the end of my freshman year because I went to regionals and I did super-well, and states, and I did pretty well there, too,” she said. “And so, that’s when it started to click my sophomore year.” 

As she progressed as a player, she went from competing in local one-day tournaments, to two-day tournaments farther away in North Carolina. In addition to TYGA, she’s also competed in Peggy Kirk Bell, and some Carolinas Golf Association (CGA) tournaments.  

“It definitely levels up,” Mecham said. “I would say TYGA is probably the lowest, and then probably Peggy Kirk Bell, and then CGA’s at the top.” 

According to tournaments.pkbgt.org, Mecham is ranked No. 78 in North Carolina girls high school golf. 

“It’s just a whole level up when you’re around people who are suddenly like way better than you,” she said. “And it’s just a different experience (in) bigger tournaments.” 

Then, her junior season at West Forsyth came last year, but it was with a different coach. Walwik left and Debra Troxell replaced him.  

“It was great,” Mecham said of Troxell said. “She was so super-bubbly and nice person. Even though she didn’t know a ton about the sport of golf at the beginning, she had been a coach in so many other things for years and she just knew what she was doing.” 

Troxell is a long-time teacher in social studies, human geography and international studies. 

“How lucky was I?,” Troxell said of coaching Mecham. “She’s a great player, she’s got a great attitude, she’s a hard worker, she’s smart, she’s kind. Like, she’s everything you’d want in a player.” 

One thing that helped Mecham was playing behind top-notch players like Mary-Paige King, who graduated from West Forsyth in 2023 and is now playing at Catawba College, and Paige Sidney, who graduated this past June. 

“It’s been great because all three years we’ve been able to send the team to states,” Mecham said. “And just looking up to those girls and going to states as a team has been great.” 

In last year’s NCHSAA Class 4-A state championship at Pinehurst No. 6, Sidney finished 17th with a two-day total of 155. Mecham finished tied for 47th at 169. West Forsyth finished ninth as a team at 496, 47 shots behind winner Southern Pines Pinecrest.  

“It was (Mecham’s) third year on the team and Sadie’s played a lot of golf,” Troxell said. “And so, last year she started off strong and she was just steady. She did a great job all year.” 

As Mecham’s senior season winds down, she hopes to compete in the NCHSAA Class 4-A regionals, which are scheduled Oct. 21-22, and the state championship is scheduled Oct. 28-29.  

“I was looking at their cumulative scores (last Thursday),” Troxell said. “She should be qualified for regionals already. And as far as qualifying for states, all of that comes from regionals.” 

Mecham isn’t just a golf player. She’s multi-faceted. She plays the flute at school, but not for the West Forsyth marching band. 

“In middle-school I signed up for band and wasn’t expecting too much that first year, and I really liked it and stuck with it,” she said. 

Not only does she play the flute, she was also a student at the N.C. Governor’s School this past summer at Meredith College in Raleigh. 

“That was awesome,” Mecham said. “I was there for social science and it was just a great experience learning so much more. I mean, I was obviously sad that I didn’t get to do as much golf in the summer, but I was still glad that I went.” 

As a teacher, it makes Troxell smile to see a student who is flourishing. 

“There’s not a lot of students that are as well-rounded as I’ve seen in Sadie,” Troxell said. “What I’m going to say might sound contradictory, but we have a lot of students like that at West. They’re great in the classroom, great in the field. Like, we’ve got some great students.” 

According to Mecham, she has a 4.625 GPA, and she hopes to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. next fall.  

“I would hope to study political science in college, and being at Georgetown and D.C., there’s no better place,” she said.  

After graduating, Mecham wants to get into government, possibly even politics. 

“She can really do anything she puts her mind to,” Troxell said. “I see her writing more policy than being on up on a ticket.” 

As many interests Mecham has, her first love is golf. 

“Golf is something I do for fun,” she said. “It’s like a great outlet and break for me.”