Once upon a time, Amanda Fairweather didn’t want to play golf, but she found motivation in an unusual place — a cell phone.

Fairweather, a senior, is now a leader and top player for the Tahoma girls golf team but she may not have turned out had it not been for a high tech reward.

She began taking lessons when she was 7 years old. Golf was a family sport; her parents played and so did her sister.

“I started playing with them and I realized I totally hated it,” Fairweather said. “Now I keep telling my parents I wish I would’ve started sooner.”

The summer before her freshman year, Fairweather explained, her parents offered her a cell phone if she made the varsity golf team. Her sister was already on the team so that was further motivation.

Fairweather made the team, got her cell phone, but she’s done a lot more with the experience.

This fall she has helped the team to an 8-2 record with both losses to Kentwood, earning medalist honors a number of times, and having a blast at the same time.

“I feel like I’m more confident this season,” she said. “I also know that I’m playing college golf. It was a confidence booster… to know I’m a good player.”

Next year, Fairweather will play on scholarship at the University of North Dakota.

While coach Tracy Krause calls Fairweather one of the best players he’s worked with at Tahoma, she attributes her success as much to her teammates as to her own hard work.

“Teammates are your base and they help you improve,” she said. “Without them, you have no support. Your teammates always help you strive to get better.”

Krause explains that Fairweather brings a great deal to the team besides low scores.

“She’s an excellent player to begin with,” Krause said. “What separates her, No. 1, she’s really competitive, she’s driven. The other part is she’s a really good teammate. Golf sometimes is just an individual sport… but, she’s just an exceptional teammate. She’s good at being a role model when it comes to practice. She’s a leader.”

Her year-round play, Krause added, brings that extra level of experience.

Fairweather plays tournaments through the winter, works weekly with a swing coach, and puts in the time between the end of the regular season in the fall and the state tournament in the spring.

But, it’s that leadership role Fairweather has taken that impresses Krause.

For her senior project, for example, Fairweather has developed and will teach at a golf clinic for girls in sixth through ninth grade.

“They don’t have to know how to play,” she said. “It will give them a feel for the game. Hopefully it will get some girls out… because our team is pretty much all seniors.”

Before school started, Fairweather and teammate Emily Clarkson went to a leadership seminar offered by the Kent School District, and Krause said the pair have brought back what they learned and passed it on to the team.

“The thing that’s really nice about Amanda is the other pieces,” Krause said. “She wants to leave a legacy for the program. She has a different mentality than a lot of other kids coming in.”

But, she’s also focused on some short term goals, too, such as play at the district tournament on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at Gold Mountain Golf Course in Bremerton.

“Our goal is to get all league in district so we have the most people get to the second day,” Fairweather said. “My (personal) goal is to win districts. I’m really excited to go to districts. I think our team will do really well.”