The most stringent rule: Don't run afoul of Sister Lynn. One year, on the ride home, players were arguing with one another, to their eventual regret. Sister Lynn stopped the van and shut off the motor, and the air conditioning with it, for an hour. It was 110 degrees outside. "After that it was clear sailing," Sister Lynn says. "Sister Lynn doesn't let any negative talk go on," Farr-Kaye says. "She's strict. You have to act like young ladies, dress like young ladies. But she is a ball. She makes it fun."
Xavier Prep has experienced losses, incidentally. It lost Heather Farr to cancer and another Xavier Prep golfer, Emily Ell, who was killed in an automobile accident involving a drunk driver in 1999. It is a requirement that Xavier Prep girls come to know not only each other but Farr and Ell, each of whom is honored on that hallway wall at Xavier Prep. Every match begins with the same prayer: "Emily Ell and Heather Farr, help us. St. Francis Xavier, pray for us."
"It's good for kids to have role models," Sister Lynn says, "and these two are outstanding role models."
There is another role model, of course, one who has had an enduring influence on every golfer who has passed through Xavier Prep. "Sister Lynn is Xavier golf," Farr-Kaye says. "She's an amazing lady. She's one of a kind."
Her legacy ultimately won't be defined by the state championships, but by the lives she has touched. Touching lives: That's another apparent habit that Sister Lynn has.
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