Ken Roberts
Sports Writer
Coach Tom Horn used the term “Groundhog’s Day” to describe the week’s performance for the Husky boys golf team last week and to some degree the girls match as well.
That analysis was based on the boys results in their two matches of last week, a third place finish in their league match and a middle of the road 5th place finish in a seven team Invitational hosted by Cottage Grove at Tokatee. It was basically a repeat of previous performances by the Huskies.
“We have Sam Waller at the top, freshman Adam Matuszak in the fifth spot, and the other three interchangeable in the middle,” said Horn, who is still looking for that break out round where all of the players put together some of their best rounds.
And that usually leaves them in the middle some place. Usually, there is one golfer that stands out for the team. In the league match at Mallard Creek, it was Matt Zollman, who had his best round in his two years of varsity golf with an 84 (41-43).
“He was grinning throughout the match,” said Horn. “But what do golfers do? At the end of the round, he looked back and there were a bunch of could have, would have shots that he wished he had back.”
Waller led the Huskies with an 80, followed Zollman and Sean McGuyre’s 87, which was good enough to defeat their primary rival, Molalla, by 22 strokes. That was a match that was conducted in dismal conditions. On Friday, the weather was perfect.
“It was a beautiful golf course on a beautiful day, but we didn’t match the weather,” said Horn about his team’s performance at Tokatee.
The golfers can’t really play off each other’s performance much. Only on the turn after the ninth hole can they see if another Husky has a good score going.
“It can be infectious if you see a good score,” stated Horn, “but we didn’t have one good score that we could ride.”
The Huskies had totals bunched tightly together with the 86’s of Waller and Kenny Jones followed by McGuyre’s 88 and Zollman’s 91.
The boys have only a single match this week, Tuesday’s league match at Santiam. The JV team has its district finale at Langdon Farms on Wednesday.
Girls Golf
Without their number two golfer, Oakley Tyler, the girls finished in fourth place, five strokes behind their main nemesis, Stayton.
“For the weather, our girls played well,” said Horn. “They weren’t terribly disappointed.”
Slow play was another factor in the match. Lisa Wiens, whose game has been steadily improving, had to play against a Cascade golfer who shot 300 for 18 holes, often using just her putter on every shot. It was primarily the entire Cascade team, which has only one legitimate golfer, that extended the round that was already made miserable in the rain.
Wiens worked her way through it to card a 122, 11 strokes behind team leader Chelsea Gagner at 111. Abby Knight and Elyse Ellingboe, who was participating for the first time at the varsity level, rounded out the team which collectively shot 506. Cascade finished last at 782.
The girls also play just one match, on Thursday at Arrowhead.