Author Spotlight
Ada Lillie Worthington
When junior Ella Slicker ended the first round of the Sunflower League tournament with a two-foot putt for par, she had no idea what she’d just done.
Mildly disappointed after missing her third birdie putt in a row, she walked away, relieved she made it through the 18-hole round with eight birdies and only one bogey — a major accomplishment to complete a round with mostly par or under. She scribbled on her scorecard thinking she shot a 6-under-par 66.
Meanwhile, buzz of Ella’s actual score was spreading among her teammates, parents and coaches. Ella had in fact fired a 7-under-par 65, the lowest score ever for both girls and boys in East golf history — a program with a whopping 23 state titles.
Ella’s teammate and senior Ingrid Blacketer’s dad told her from the Kansas Golf Score live scoring website as they drove back to the clubhouse. Freshman teammate Katie Robinett was told via word-of-mouth. Both Blacketer and Robinett gasped and cheered for their friend, but they weren’t surprised.
No one was surprised … well, except Ella.
“I wasn’t really thinking about [the record] at the time because, honestly, I only thought I was [6]-under,” Ella said. “So I completely zoned out, and I was just playing. When I play free, those are the days when I shoot my best.”
Only when Ella returned to the clubhouse to review her score with the tournament director did she learn that she was going to be added to the East record books. Hugs and messages of “Congrats!” from her parents, coaches and teammates instantly flooded her surroundings.
But Ella is no stranger to breaking records. Following an undefeated season, she accomplished the rare feat of placing first in the state as a freshman and then set the all-time East girls golf record last year with a 5-under-par 67 — five strokes lower than the previous record. Even this year, Ella clinched second overall at the end of the Sunflower League tournament and went on to win first at regionals and fourth at state.
Girls golf coach Ben Hendricks said after setting the record last year, it was only a matter of time before she surpassed the previous record of one stroke higher, set in 2021 by alumni Thomas Gogel.
“I figured she would [break the record],” Hendricks said. “We talked about last year when she shot 67, and I actually talked to Thomas Gogel. I texted him. I said, ‘Ella almost broke your record.’ He was very happy, but he’s like, ‘She’ll probably break it next year.’ I knew if she had a round where she played well, she could break the record.”
***
Ella and Robinett were waiting by the tee box.
It was hole 10 and the course was backed up by a couple golfers. Fellow teammate junior Addy Sullivan stood in front of them, about to start the hole, when Robinett turned to Ella to make conversation.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m doing fine — I just hit a bogey and I’m 3-under,” Ella replied, totally nonchalant.
Robinett couldn’t help but feel awe. Ella was already 3-under-par halfway through the holes, acting like it was normal to already be at a score that some golfers don’t even reach by the end of a tournament.
“That’s normal for her,” Robinett said. “She’s just that good.”
By this point, Ella was locked-in, only briefly unfocusing to laugh off her “stupid” bogey on hole nine. Ella’s dad, Gregory Slicker, thinks it was the most pressure-free he’s ever seen his daughter play.
“I think everything just came together,” Ella said. “With golf, you need a bunch of different things to go right to shoot a score like this: Your iron game has to be good, your driver has to always be in play, you have to hit greens basically all 18 to make those birdie putts. So I think everything just coming together at once made this score possible.”
To achieve this, Ella practices six days a week and three to four hours per day. One or two days with the East team and the rest on her own. With the team, she’s either assigned to complete a block practice — consisting of technique drills — or random practice, where golfers play nine holes with two or three other teammates.
To make her eight birdie putts in this round, Ella practiced at Indian Hills Country Club drilling three or four-foot shots and 20 to 30-foot lag putts. Making 18 greens in regulation was possible due to the practices where she trained wedges in increments of 30 to 70 yards.
“I can always tell when someone puts in the work,” Hendricks said. “They look more comfortable with the golf club in their hand. We can tell when someone’s been practicing really hard. There’s these little cues for us. Ella is dedicated and focused in practice. You have to have this discipline to do it right”
How Ella composes herself is a marvel to her parents and her teammates. Ella will be messing around with her teammates during practice one minute and completely invested in her training the next.
“She’s always focused, but she’s also making jokes,” Blacketer said. “I feel like if you concentrate too much, that’s also not very good. But she has a good balance of having fun while also being locked-in.”
Even during tournaments, Ella says she feels no pre-round jitters — only excitement. Her heart might pick up a little before the first tee, but her 13 years of golf training quickly kicks in. And it helps when you’ve just had a jam session with your teammates to “hakuna matata” by Gunna with the windows rolled down and a Starbucks pumpkin chai in hand before the round.
“I think I’ve just played for so long, and having coaches watch you, you can’t get angry or appear to be upset or appear to be super happy all the time,” Ella said. “You have to be very mellow.”
Although Ella tends to display the nonchalant version of herself, her competitive side still peeks through. Over the summer, Ella competed in six summer tournaments, varying from Pine Hurst, North Carolina to Oakland Country Club in Kansas.
After each tournament, she met with her summer coach, David Hanson, to talk about if she struggled, what she hit on certain holes and even if the people she played with were nice to her. Sometimes she’ll even recruit her dad to video her swing to further improve her mechanics during practice.
“She always wants to do better than she has done where she’s somewhat deficient, or areas that have been a problem for her in the past,” Gregory said. “That’s where I think the motivation comes from — her competitive nature and her ability to always want to get better.”
But the team doesn’t just see Ella as a valuable asset to help win tournaments or break records. They see someone who’s always willing to make TikToks with in the car before tournaments, or someone to watch “White Chicks” with in the crowded transportation van on the way home from tournaments.
“She is complimentary of her teammates, making sure that she includes people,” Hendricks said. “She’s the first person [who] wants to know how everyone did. Even though she beat everybody, she’s still very gracious and very complimentary and wants everyone to do well, and wants them to feel appreciated.”
Scoring a 7-under-par 65 doesn’t mean the work has stopped for Ella, however. Even though her record-breaking performance pushed the rest of the team to receive second place at state last week, Ella believes she still has work to do around the green.
“I just always want to strive to do better than I have before,” Ella said. “And even though 7-under was an incredible score, I feel that I could do even better than that. So I think every time I play like that, I just feel like I can always do better and just put more work in.”
Leave a Reply