East High Golf - Monday, April 3, 2023

Since practice began on February 27, the boys golf team has been in long sleeves and pants nearly every day.  Thankfully we haven’t had too many unbearably cold days, but most have been at least cool.  So of course, for our first tournament, it was about 85 degrees (but probably felt hotter, since we weren’t used to it), sunny, with almost no wind.  Now, I’m not complaining, because the weather was spectacular, an absolutely perfect day for golf, at one of my favorite courses ever (Rolling Hills Country Club).  But what I’m saying is, many golfers, along with the golf course, were unprepared.  No one brought sunscreen (you might be able to tell who the golfers are by the overly red noses, cheeks and calves).  The golf course had zero water jugs for the players to access, so more than just the East golfers were coming to the jug that I had brought.  But aside from that, it truly was an incredible day for golf, with seriously good competition, on a great but challenging course.

Our golf squad is very young this season (one junior, the rest sophomores & freshman), but full of tremendous potential.  And yesterday we saw both the youth, and the potential.  For example, Hagen Shane, one of our freshman, struggled in his first high school tournament, shooting a 120 (trust me, he’s too talented to shoot many more scores like that).  Owen Knipp shot a 121, and similar to Hagen, he’s too good for that to happen again.  Henry White (97) and Donovan Bergen (103) had some flashes of great play, including a back-nine 48 for Donovan, and a front-nine 47 for Henry.  Anderson Tung (87) shot a front-nine 40, finishing 49th.  But the highlight of our day was watching the steady play of freshman Talen Nasone.  He shot a 37 on the front, then an even-par 36 on the back for a one-over par 73, good enough for a 9th-place tie.  Not only did he tie for 9th, but he shot the lowest score of any WPS golfer, AND he shot the lowest score of any freshman in the entire 103-player field.

In addition, we posted a team score of 360, good for 9th place, and first among our WPS counterparts (is it okay that I keep pointing that out?).  It will be fun to see how we progress throughout the season.

Now for the truly unbelievable.  The tournament was won by a golfer from Derby High School named Jaydon Carruthers.  He shot 9-under, 63.  I can’t even imagine.  Kapaun took the team title with a score of 285.  Click here for complete tournament results.


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