A hole-in-one season.

The boys golf team competed in an 18 hole tournament on Saturday, Sep. 10 and a 9 hole match on Tuesday, Sep. 13. On Saturday, the boys played the Grant County Invitational at Eagle Creek Country Club and had their best tournament finish of the season. They  placed inside the top 10. Aidan Boyer shot 95, Isaac Lewis shot 96, Cooper Harkey shot 101, Brayden McMillen shot 106, and Nate Montgomery shot 120. At the match on Tuesday at Heritage Hill Golf Club, the boys placed third, with Christian Adkins shooting the low score of 45. 

The team went to the Stevens Golf Academy on Friday Sep.9, spent the night, and got up for the tournament the next morning. Coach Kyle Downs said that before the tournament, the team narrowed down the distances of their clubs which helped the team get significantly better before the tournament. 

“The course had five par threes that were all over 200 yards, so we kind of just struggled on par threes. Other than that, we would have been significantly better,” Downs said. All of the players had to pull woods on the par threes, which Downs said is not normal for them. At Elizabethtown Country Club, the course where the team will play the region tournament on Monday, Sep. 19, there are not many long par threes which Downs said he was thankful for. 

“ETown is fairly hard right now. The ball is running a long way… we just need to keep the ball out of the rough,” Downs said. The team does a good job of keeping the ball in play, and Downs says the most important thing going into region is to keep the ball in the fairway and hit the center of the greens. If they keep up their consistent play, Downs is confident that they will perform well at the region tournament. 

“Just moving forward, we’ve got one more week, so we’ll just continue to get better and have some fun this week,” Downs said. Downs is looking forward to seeing how all of the experience they have gained and things they have learned this season will prepare them for the region tournament on Monday, September 19. 

At Elizabethtown Country Club, the scores were not the highest they could have been for players. “I played what I normally shoot. I didn’t play amazing but I didn’t play awful either,” Lewis said. Lewis normally shoots in the low 90s, but one of his main goals is to get down in the 80s. He hopes that he can reach this goal at region. 

On Tuesday at Heritage Hill Golf Club, the team didn’t play as well as they could because of some of the challenges they faced.  “I didn’t play very well, I shot a 50 and I couldn’t hit the ball very well. It was also pretty dark outside, it was hard to see where the ball went,” Lewis said. A lot of the time, Coach Downs uses 9 hole matches as an opportunity for the players to get experience out on the course. Getting the players out there and letting them be in different situations on the actual golf course helps them know how to handle everything that can be thrown at them in tournaments.

The Region game for boys golf is rapidly approaching, and the gold team is pretty confident in their skills. “Region is Monday and we only have three practices until then, I just have to make sure I’m hitting them straight. But I think we’ll all do pretty good. I hope we all shoot our lowest,” Lewis said. Having previous knowledge on this course could help their chances at region. “We played there once with the girls team and I really liked it. It was actually the lowest I’ve ever shot. So I hope that’s the same,” Lewis said. Already coming across the things that he needs to remember on the course will help him know where to place the ball and what clubs to hit.