East High Golf - Thursday, April 6, 2023

On Thursday, April 6, three East High golfers participated in their first tournament of the year: The West High JV Invitational, a nine-hole event held at Sim Park Golf Course.  When the day began I was worried it was going to be a little cool, but it turned out to be another spectacular day for golf.

Two of our golfers (Arri Reilly and Alec Gatzulis) were playing in their first ever high school golf tournament.  Ismail Saeed, on the other hand, was a member of the team last year, and being the seasoned veteran that he is, showed all those other young whippersnappers how things are done.  Ismail played a nice round, shooting a 58, and ended up placing 5th and earning a medal.  He even had his playing partners telling me he needs to be moved up to varsity!

During a golf tournament, the groups are generally placed one right after the other, and it’s imperative that your group keep up with the group in front of you.  Arri Reilly had an interesting tournament because, by his group’s sixth hole, the group in front of them was three holes ahead!  I hadn’t seen his group much during the round, so when I finally caught up with them and saw how far behind they were, it didn’t take long to realize why: both of his playing partners appeared to be holding some type of secret competition to see who could play the slowest.  It was painful to watch.  Arri did his best to play fast, but there’s only so much you can do in that situation.  Arri shot a 65 to finish 9th.

Our third East High golfer on that day was Alec Gatzulis.  Alec is actually a student over at Northeast Magnet, but his brother Martin is pretty famous around the halls of East High (I mean, he has two posters that I know of…there could be more!).  One of Alec’s playing partners was Liam Kesse, a foreign exchange student from Germany.  Turns out Liam got paired with probably the only player in the field who has actually visited Liam’s hometown, as Alec’s family traveled there recently (unfortunately, for the life of me, I now can’t remember which city it was…).  Anyway, Alec shot a 68 to finish in a tie for 14th.  For complete tournament results, click here.

These three golfers will be in action again on Monday, April 17, at Auburn Hills.  Wish them luck the next time you see them!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

East High Golf - Monday, April 8, 2024

Image
Junior Anderson Tung putts on 18 at Auburn Hills. Anderson shot a 12-over 84. After five weeks of practice, the East High boys varsity golf team finally got their season underway on a spectacular, made-for-golf Monday, as they competed in the Bishop Carroll Invitational at Auburn Hills Golf Course.   This tournament had traditionally been played at Rolling Hills Country Club, possibly my favorite course in the Wichita area.  So you can imagine my disappointment when last week I realized it would be at Auburn Hills, the most difficult public course in the city.  As the tournament teed off, and the effects of the solar eclipse began to subside, the question was: would Auburn Hills  prove too challenging for the first tournament of the season? Unfortunately,  for most of our golfers, the answer was yes. Our entire team has high expectations for this season, as we return our entire lineup.  This includes two state-qualifiers from last season, and seven other players with at least some vars
Read more

East High Golf - Wednesday, September 27

Image
Jillian Hutchinson hits her tee shot at the 14th hole at Sim Park. For the second time in three days, the East High girls golf team competed in an 18-hole varsity tournament, this time at the North High Invitational at Sim Park Golf Course.  I knew going into the tournament that our girls had been improving, but in my three years as coach, I have never seen our girls collectively hit the ball so well.  It was awesome! Even going back to last year, Jillian Hutchinson had been so close to breaking 100.  At this same tournament a year ago, she shot an even 100, but in my time as coach, that is as close as she has gotten.  But on Wednesday, she hit the ball as well as I've ever seen her hit it, especially off the tee.  Her first few holes were a bit shaky, but she improved as the day went on (which is always what I want to see), and on her back nine shot a 45, the best nine-hole score an East High golfer has posted in three years.  She ended up with a 96, and tied with five other girls
Read more

East High Golf - Thursday, September 7/Monday, September 11, 2023

The East High girls golf team recently competed in two tournaments, the first of which took place on Thursday, September 7.  For the first time ever, East High hosted the MacDonald Cup Scramble.  This tournament was unique because the two-person scramble format is something we have never done in a high school tournament.  There were a handful of girls that really enjoyed the different format, but for many girls, both literally and figuratively, it was a long (and hot) day. I won't beat around the bush...for most of our girls, this tournament was a struggle.  The heat and wind played a factor, as did the fact that a couple of our East High teams didn't really enjoy their playing partners from other schools.  There was also probably some confusion about the format of the tournament, since normally the girls play as individuals.  Whatever the reason, the tournament just wasn't quite as successful as I had imagined while organizing it. The top pairing for East High was senior J
Read more