East High Golf - Monday, April 15, 2024

Alec Gatzulis tees off on the par-three 6th hole at Sim Park.

Following a week of tackling two of the more difficult courses in the area, the East High boys golf team returned this past Monday to more forgiving territory (or so we hoped) at Sim Park Golf Course, competing in the first GWAL regular season event of the season.  Despite the looming tax-filing deadline, our boys full focus was on golf.  And it needed to be because the wind was a bear once again, making the easiest course in the city play much harder than it normally does.

Even with the wind, East High showed improvement compared to our first two events of the year.  As usual, the Aces were led by sophomore Talen Nasone, who shot a six-over 77 to finish in 3rd place.  Most of us would be pleased with a third place finish, but most of us are not as talented as Talen.  And it's true that if he had been able to make a few putts, he might've had an opportunity to win the tournament.  Still, I was pleased with his performance.

Junior Anderson Tung turned in another steady performance, posting 17 scores of 3, 4, or 5.  His one hiccup was on his next-to-last hole (#9) where he blasted his approach shot over the green and into the parking lot.  But he still posted a great score, breaking 80 for the first time at a high school tournament.  He shot 78 to T4th.

The good golf was not limited to our top two golfers, however.  For the first time during my tenure as coach at East High, we had four golfers shoot scores under 100.  Junior Donovan Bergen bounced back from Thursday's disappointment in a big way, shooting 90 and tying for 14th.  I was happy he was able to get back on the right track.  And sophomore Hagen Shane returned to the varsity squad and posted his first-ever sub-100 round, shooting a 97 to finish 21st.

Despite those triumphs, and because golf is golf, a couple of our varsity guys struggled.  Senior Owen Knipp's front-nine 60 was certainly not what he was hoping for, and although he did bounce back with a 49 on the back, the damage had been done.  Owen's 109 total placed him 38th.  And sophomore Alec Gatzulis just didn't have it on Monday.  When a player has a bad round, I like to see if there was a difference in their nine-hole scores.  I like it when their second nine is better than their first.  Alec's second nice was actually 10 shots worse than his first nine.  Just a bad day, but I know he'll rebound.  Alec placed 47th with a 128.

The varsity tournament was won by Bishop Carroll, but East High finished just three shots back, the best we've ever done in my time as coach.  The top individual performer was Drew Ricke of Bishop Carroll, who shot a three-over 74.  For complete tournament results, click here.

This was our first tournament where both varsity and JV competed, and we had a solid day on the JV side.  JV players only play nine holes, but junior Henry White bounced back from his disappointing first tournament to place 3rd with a score of 46, just two strokes out of first place.  Freshman Kyran Shane, coming off struggles of his own in Newton, shot a 48 to place 5th.  And one other East High JV golfer placed in the top-ten: junior Arri Reilly shot a 51, good for 7th.  Ismail Saeed, another junior, shot a 60, good enough to place him 17th.  And finally, we had one golfer who competed in his first-ever high school golf tournament.  Junior Zheyun "Karl" Shan finished T19th with a score of 62.

As a team, our JV placed second overall, which is awesome.  The top individual JV player was Carson Harter of Kapaun, with a score of 44.  For complete JV tournament results, click here.

The golf team will be back in action on Monday, April 22, with another GWAL event at Auburn Hills.