Sweet Home’s young golf squad finished fourth in the Sky-Em district golf championships May 7-8 at Tokatee Golf Club in Blue River.
Sisters won the team championship, shooting 348-346–694 over the 36-hole event, with Cottage Grove finishing second (380-376–756). Junction City was third (386-385–771) and La Pine only had three golfers, so it did not score in the team race.
The Huskies shot 408 on the first day but made significant improvement on Day 2, finishing with 390 to total 798.
“We did pretty good,” said first-year Coach Ken Anderson.
Nate Pajutee of Sisters was the individual champion, shooting 81-79–160.
Michael Tolle led Sweet Home both days, shooting 100 on Monday and following that up with a 94 on Tuesday, when three Huskies shot under 100 for the first time this year, which, Anderson said, was “encouraging.”
Tolle’s 194 was a personal best for 36 holes. Behind him were Stephen Bishop 103-95–198), Casey Horner (103-98–201), Christian Porter (102-105–207) and Austin Yoder (105-103–208).
Anderson said that although scores haven’t improved significantly for the Huskies, they have made a lot of progress this year in learning the fundamentals of playing golf.
“The other coaches were making a lot of comments, as in ‘You guys are going to be good next year or the year after,’” Anderson said. “They’re right. The kids are striking the ball tons better than they were. They just haven’t figured out how to score yet.
“What we did this year was work on their swings – making contact, the fundamentals of the game. Next year we’ll work on the strategy of the game.”
Since the entire team is underclassmen, Anderson expects them all back, including some JV players who got varsity experience this year.
He said he also wants to encourage incoming freshmen – “both boys and girls” – to try golf.
“We will be competitive,” he said. “By their senior year, these guys will be pretty tough to deal with.”
Stephen Bishop considers his next shot during a recent match.