By Rich Addicks
Dorsey’s 2021 Symetra Tour season started out stressful and disappointing, but ended up being her best so far…finishing 86th on the tour’s money list.
“I fell a little short of my goal of finishing in the top 80 on Symetra at the end of the season,” said Dorsey. “That would have guaranteed me full status for the 2022 season, but I’m not disappointed in how I finished. I’ll have good status for 2022.”
It wasn’t until the fifth event of the season that Dorsey was finally able to tee it up in the Garden City (KS) Charity Classic. She missed the cut after feeling like she’d hit the ball as good as ever, and left Kansas concerned and stressed that she might not get into another Symetra event before the season’s first re-shuffle. Two weeks later she got into the IOA Classic in Longwood, FL, on a very tight and challenging course, made the cut and was soon reshuffled into a new status category, allowing her to play all the remaining Symetra events. That turned her season around! Out of her 14 starts on the Symetra Tour, Dorsey made eight cuts.
Highlights:
…Her best finish ever on the Symetra Tour came in the Four Winds Invitational at the South Bend (IN) Country Club where she finished tied for 14th with a score of -4 for the three days of competition.
…At the Symetra Championship, she finished tied for 37th out of the 100 players who made it into the final event of the season, finishing -9 for the four-day tournament, playing under par each day at the LPGA International Golf Club in Daytona, FL.
…Earlier in the season, her other satisfying finish was at the Island Resort Championship in Harris, MI, going under par each day to finish at -4 for the three-day tournament, tied for 36th.
Dorsey would tell you that much of her success in 2021 had to do with how she traveled, crisscrossing the country in her 20-foot Airstream she calls “DA Golfstream.” Life on the road for a professional golfer is never easy, or simple, but when you have your home with you every week, it helps. Same bed. Home cooking. And with her workout weights in tow, same gym.
Dorsey’s quote in an article in her hometown Big Sky, MT newspaper sums up her travel philosophy best. “I like to say it doesn’t matter where in the country we are, I’m home.”
For the record, Dorsey did sleep in a bed without wheels underneath it but not until she had logged an incredible 281 straight days in her Airstream, covering an eye-popping 20,000-plus miles.
If home is her Airstream, then her driver is one of her best traveling partners. Dorsey continued to shine off the tee, finishing the season ranked 13th on the tour with an average driving distance of 278 yards and a fairway accuracy of 73 percent. Other stats of note included her putting average of 30.68 putts per round (ranked 52nd), rounds under par (ranked 49th), and a scoring average of 72.66 (ranked 67th).
Heading into the new 2022 season, with a new tour sponsor (the Epson Tour), Dorsey can’t wait to get on the road and see where it leads her.
Enjoy a few snapshots from the past season.
