After a hiatus over spring break, Sweet Home’s boys will be back on the golf course with two tournaments this week.
The boys last played March 18 at the Oregon Golf Association home course in Woodburn in a match featuring seven of the league’s 10 teams, although two did not field scoring teams.
“But we would have beaten both if they did,” said Coach Pat Davis.
Sweet Home placed fourth, behind Marist, Woodburn and Stayton.
Marist, which won the 5A championship last year, looks to be the favorite for the 4A title this year, after posting a 306 team score at OGA, “which is a tough course,” Davis said. “I think it should be in the rotation for both the boys and girls state championships.”
The severity of the course took its toll on Sweet Home, he said. Sophomore Brayden Keesee led the Huskies with an 87, placing ninth out of 40 golfers. However, he was the only player to shoot under 100 for Sweet Home.
Sophomore Chris May and freshman Alex Kisselburgh both shot 113, followed by junior Carson Smith with 119 and freshman Carsen Perry in his first varsity outing, with 121.
Davis said the Huskies in spots 2 through 5 will need to get better by about 20 strokes if they want to qualify for state.
Woodburn finished with a 365 on its home course and Stayton, last year’s league champion, was third with 388.
“We can get to 388, without a doubt,” Davis said. “Right now, with Cascade, we’re on the outside and looking in. We have to lower some scores.
“We won’t see Sisters until the last tournament of the regular season, so we don’t know how good they are. But we are comfortably fourth out of 10 teams right now, from all the results I have seen and what we’ve seen in the tournaments. We’ll be scratching hard with Cascade for that last state spot.”
The boys will be at Santiam (Stayton) on Tuesday, April 2, and will play Friday, April 5 at Middlefield in Cottage Grove.
The girls will be off this week and will return to competition April 8 at Rogue Valley Country Club in Grants Pass, the site of this year’s state tournament.
The JV boys will play Wednesday, April 3, in a nine-hole match at Evergreen (Mt. Angel).