East High Golf - Monday, April 22, 2024

The victorious East High varsity golf team outside the Auburn Hills clubhouse.

Let's cut right to the chase.  On Monday, we played at Auburn Hills (again).  In gale-force winds (again).  And we brought home "the dub" (as the kids say; for complete tournament results, click here).

Inspired by a fiery pre-round pep talk from their coach, which centered around the themes of mental toughness and 70-year-old ladies who had already walked the course in the tough conditions they were about to face, the boys brought home East High's first team victory in my tenure as coach.  It was a tremendous accomplishment for our team, and a confidence booster that will hopefully pay dividends as we continue to prepare for postseason play.

During the round there were numerous exciting moments for our players, and several moments of pride for me personally.  Here are just a few:

• Talen Nasone for eagle!  Talen carded a three on the par-five ninth, and according to one coach, very nearly made a two!  Despite a rough end to his round, Talen shot a seven-over 79, which was good enough for fourth place.  His score included a back-nine 37, which tied for the second-lowest nine-hole score of any player.
• Anderson Tung guts one out.  Anderson wasn't sure if he was even going to be able to play on Monday.  He had been fighting illness all weekend, and even 45 minutes before the tournament started, he still wasn't sure he could go.  But I told him play or else (just kidding), and despite not feeling his best, he posted a gritty 81 to finish right behind Talen in fifth place.  I was incredibly proud of him.
• Hagen Shane in the top ten!  For the first time in his varsity high school career, Hagen placed in the top ten (T10th) thanks to a 92, his second straight round under 100.  Hagen's attitude and demeanor on the course have been outstanding, and good golf is following.  I am super-proud of him and how he's developing.
• Donovan Bergen's positive attitude.  After a great tee shot on his first hole of the day, Donovan got 7s on the next three holes.  Which isn't great.  But over the final fourteen holes, he was 14-over.  And every time I saw him, he was in a great mood.  He chose to stay positive, and positive results followed.  It warmed my heart every time I saw him.  Donovan shot a 94 tied for 13th.
• A breakthrough for Henry White?  Henry's season so far has been incredibly frustrating.  His swing has been failing him, and in general, very little has gone right.  When I first saw him yesterday, his frustration was palpable.  But the next time I saw him, I detected an ever-so slight smile.  Like Donovan, he was doing his best to be positive, and had found one thing in his game that was going well: his wedges.  I then asked about his driver, which has delivered nothing but ugly duck-hooks all season, and we decided to try something different with his grip.  I then stepped back, said a quick prayer to please let this work (true story), and watched as he smashed his drive down the middle of the fairway.  I got chills.  It was truly one of the best moments of the day.  Henry's back-nine 44 was ten shots better than his front nine, and his total of 98 got him in the top 20 (T18th).
• Owen Knipp is close.  Owen was the lone member of our team to not break 100, placing 26th with a score of 106.  And while he was disappointed with his overall score, he also mentioned multiple times that he was hitting the ball well, and that he didn't think his score was indicative of how well he was actually playing.  He struggled on the recently-aerated greens (lots of people did), but if he continues to hit the ball like he is, and his putting comes around a bit, his scores will soon drop.

Yesterday's good golf and exciting moments weren't limited to just our varsity group.  Our JV squad had another solid day, placing second as a team (for complete JV tournament results, click here).  I only got to see our JV players once, on the par-three 4th hole, but several of them had nice days individually, including:

• Arri Reilly.  Other than Henry White's drive that was mentioned earlier, my favorite moment of the day was Arri's tee shot on #4.  The shot has to carry water, which is not Arri's cup of tea.  He planned to bail out to the right, but I finally told him, "nope, you're doin' this".  On the tee box we came up with a plan: tee the ball up a bit higher than normal, move it up in his stance, focus ONLY on a target beyond the water, and put a smooth swing on it.  Again, following a brief prayer, Arri hit a perfect little pitching wedge right into the middle of the green.  It was beautiful!  He said he was still nervous, but it proved to him that he could do it.  Arri shot a 50 and finished 4th.
• Alec Gatzulis.  Alec was actually the first East High player to come through.  His tee shot was much lower than I was hoping, hitting the water about five feet short of the bank...and then skipping up onto dry land!  He made a bogey, and ended up shooting a 51 to place 5th.
• Ismail Saeed.  Ismail, like his friend Arri, has an aversion to hitting shots over water.  But, like Arri, I made him do it anyway.  We walked through the same process as Arri, and he also hit an amazing shot.  Too amazing, in fact, as his pitching wedge went clear over the green!  No matter.  He chipped on and was able to make bogey.  Ismail finished in 7th place with a 53.
• Kyran Shane.  Kyran's round got off to a rocky start, and by the time he got to #4, he wasn't in much mood to discuss my theories.  He humored me, then hit two straights shots into the water.  I haven't seen Kyran that mad before, and I hope I don't have to again.  He actually did settle down and play the last five holes in only six shots over par, but the damage had been done.  Kyran finished T10th with a score of 58.
• Zheyun "Karl" Shan.  Karl came to #4 and I decided it was time to work my magic with him, walking him through the same pre-shot routine that had worked so swimmingly for Arri.  And...well, you can't win 'em all 😄.  Karl had a bit of a rough day all-around, posting a score of 77 to finish T25th.

The golfers are off the rest of this week, preparing for next week and the craziest stretch of golf we'll ever have: three tournaments in six days, including a 36-hole Saturday tournament in Garden City.  Yikes...sounds like a lot of blog posts.