Name: Chelsea CurtisSport: Golf

Hometown: Mashpee, Mass.

Class: NHS ’09

ajor: Human Science

High School Career: Captained the golf and basketball teams. Named Boston Globe High School Player of the Year.

GU Career: Recorded seven top-10 finishes in tournaments and posted the team’s single best score of 70 and 36-hole score of 150 last year.

Why golf?

I played a lot of sports when I was younger. I played basketball in high school and captained my team. I guess it’s because I lived on a golf course and I could go out there and play. I was always that kid who actually liked to play. A lot of girls get forced into golf through their parents, but my parents don’t really play that much – maybe once or twice a year – so I just kind of went out by myself and enjoyed it by myself or played with my friends. I just started dropping sports gradually. I just loved the competition part of golf.

What was your freshman dorm?

Village C West. I liked it. You get your own bathroom, but space is an issue. And we had the smallest room on the floor, so that was the biggest issue.

What are golf practices typically like for you?

Unfortunately, our course – which is an amazing course, called Four Streams – is in Maryland, so it’s about 45 minutes away. It is kind of a trek, but it’s well worth it. One group will go out in a van, and the next group will go out in a suburban. Having two cars makes it nice. We try to schedule practice around our classes.

What is the team dynamic like?

Our team has seven people, so it’s really small. But it’s been really good this year; we all get along. At the end of the season, we’ve all definitely been around each other a lot, so we’re OK with going our different directions. It’s been a lot of fun with the group of people we have – we have a good balance of three freshmen, a sophomore and three upperclassmen.

Is there a team joker?

That’s probably me. You don’t want to be caught sleeping in the van when I’m around. One of our freshmen, she’s definitely asleep as soon as the keys turn. So we like to mess with her a little bit. We like to draw on her. One time, when a girl fell asleep with her hand open, we put a little brownie there and took a picture.

Do you have any superstitions before tee-off?

I like to use the same ball marker. I don’t really have too many superstitions other than that. But yeah, gotta use the lucky ball mark. I have a Georgetown ball mark; it has a nice little “G” on it, and a bulldog on the other side.

Has anything crazy ever happened to you on the course?

I actually have a bald spot because I got hit in the head. It was last fall, at the Wisconsin tournament – something always goes wrong at that tournament. That year, the practice spaces were just too close together. My good friend and teammate, Katie Dwyer (COL ’08), who graduated last year, was swinging – when she swings, she likes to bring her club down – and when she was putting her club down, she hit me on the top of the head and I almost fell to the ground. I was actually bleeding; I bled through my hat and onto my white shirt. Everyone started crying because they saw blood – everyone. Katie thought she killed me.

I was incoherent, so they brought me over and they said it wasn’t too bad, just an abrasion, so I didn’t need stitches. So I was all determined to play – I didn’t come out all the way to Wisconsin not to play. I ended up playing 36 holes in one day after getting hit in the head.

I still had the same shirt on . and they put a bunch of gauze [on the wound] and I put my hat on top of that, still with the nice blood spot – none of the girls wanted to come near me – and I somehow played. I don’t know how, I don’t really remember it. When I came back here, I went to the doctor and he said I had a minor concussion, so I was bedridden for three days. But it was worth it.

Does the team have any team bonding routine?

The best thing we actually do for team bonding is that our coach has us over and we go to dinner. We actually went and picked pumpkins this past Friday and carved pumpkins, and that’s definitely the one I look forward to the most.

What’s your favorite thing to do around Georgetown?

I like trying new restaurants. It’s one thing I love to do. The last one I went to was Los Cuates. It’s a new Mexican place on Wisconsin. It was pretty good. I’d give it an eight out of 10.

Booey’s or Wisey’s?

Wisey’s. I really like the steak fajita sandwich.

– Photo and interview by Hijab Shah

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