With some matches under their belts, Sweet Home’s golfers are showing they can be competitive.
That’s Coach Pat Davis’ analysis as the Huskies head into the home stretch of their season, which hopefully will end at the state championships on May 13-14.
The girls got a taste of what’s ahead on Monday, April 8, at the Rogue Valley Country Club in Medford, where they will play in the Special District 3 championship tournament May 6-7.
Despite missing one of their top two golfers, junior Rebekah Fassler, the Huskies finished second to Bandon in what was their third match of the year.
Junior Brook Womack led Sweet Home with a 126, good for third overall behind the leaders who tied for first. Freshman Bailey Womack was right behind, with a 127, followed by junior Lexi Schilling (131) and sophomore Maren Weld (149).
“Rebekah and Brook have been scoring almost identical,” Davis said. “If she does that, we win by eight to 10 strokes over Bandon.”
Sweet Home beat North Valley and Coquille “pretty comfortably,” he said.
“The scores were high, but everybody’s scores were high,” he said. “They played in the pouring rain almost the whole day. The girls said the course was really, really, really tough.”
What remains is where the Huskies are among the 26 teams in the giant Division 3.
“The crazy thing about the girls is I have no idea,” Davis said. “We won’t see very many of the teams that will play in district. With the five full teams we’ve seen, we’re right there.”
Both the girls and boys were scheduled to play Monday, April 15, at Shadow Hills in Eugene, hosted by Marist, which will give the girls an opportunity to see how the hosts play.
This week will be the biggest yet for the girls, who will also play Thursday, April 18, at Aspen Lakes, hosted by Sisters, which is actually not in Division 3.
The Sweet Home boys finished third, behind Woodburn and Stayton, at Diamond Woods, hosted by Junction City, on Thursday, April 11.
Unfortunately for the hosts, their lone varsity golfer broke his hand in a basketball game, so Junction City actually had no golfers in the match.
The Huskies finished with 397, behind Woodburn’s 343 and Stayton’s 369, in the five-team field.
“That was about par for the course, no pun intended,” Davis noted. “Again, we were in the ballpark with Stayton.”
Brayden Keesee led Sweet Home with an 85, but was the only Husky under 100. Chris May finished with 101, Kolton Ertsgaard 103, Carson Smith 110 and Alex Kisselburgh with 116.
Davis said Kisselburgh, a freshman, is showing signs of breaking through into the low 100s.
“He’s ridiculously close,” Davis said. “He has a great swing. He’s just not striking the ball consistently, so we’re working on that.”
The varsity boys’ only match this week will be at Shadow Hills. The junior varsity will play a nine-hole round Wednesday at Agate Beach in Newport.