Washington boys golf season about to begin

With the earth?s rotation around the sun putting us just past the vernal equinox, it means it?s time to look at another of the spring sports seasons; this time golf.

Boys coach Mark Berhow says he?s pleased about those returning.

?I?m excited about the guys coming back and the potential we have to be successful this year. I think we have an excellent chance to make it back to state.

?Dalton Myers made it to state last year as an individual qualifier. He?s wanting to go back with the team this year, and I think we have some that are motivated to practice and put in the extra time and hard work it?s going to take to meet that goal.?

Not only is everyone returning who didn?t graduate from last year?s squad, there are newcomers to the team as well.

?Freshman Brock Sobaski should be able to fill in one of those open positions. We will help fill a solid six and I?m anticipating that six to be interchangeable in terms of who will be our No. 1.

?There will be good competition within our team of who can be the top golfer. That will help us get better as well.

?I?m looking forward to seeing how we develop as a team and how we learn to play and learn to get better from last year and improve.?

Picking up from last year isn?t always the case for the boys, Berhow says.

?From the guys that return, we usually give them the first couple of meets to play on the varsity level.

?If we need to make changes after those first meets, then we do that. I anticipate we will have a similar lineup to what we had last year.?

Keeping everyone in shape when they can?t always get on the course isn?t hard.

?I encourage the guys to play in other sports. Many of them were in basketball. When golf finishes, some are on the baseball team. But over the summer, quite a few play golf.

?That?s our time to practice. I tell them after baseball has ended to get out on the course and use the time to improve.

?We had one who did that between his freshman and sophomore years. He wasn?t on varsity as a freshman, but really improved over the summer to earn a varsity spot as a sophomore.

?That?s the kind of thing we are hoping to see, that things are built on from last summer and looking for continued improvement as the season goes on.

?It?s one of those things where once we get the season going and have a meet under our belts and see how we?re going to compete as well as see other competition a little bit, then we are able to make some changes and go from there.?

Many of them are ready to play golf now.

?Mentality is always a big part of a golf game. We will wait and see on that.

?Some of the guys have some good golf ability, but mentally managing the course and mistakes is what to do with that.

?One of the big things we talk about is, the most important shot is the next one, and how we get the guys to think through that and be ready so they are on the course and ready to improve on the next one and not focus on what they didn?t do or focus on the mistake on the last hole.

?That?s always a process throughout the season, is to help them to focus on what they will work on this year.?

As for overall season goals, there are some.

?We are hoping for conference title. We have a great shot. Last year we had a good shot at winning conference and we came up short.

?This year, again, I think we have a good opportunity to win conference. So we have to be ready to perform that day and be working to improve there.

?We have a pretty tough sectional district path to get to state. We will need to be ready to play our best golf at the end of the season.

?All the meets we have, in reality, are pretty much more pressure-practice opportunities and to see in a meet situation how we handle that.?

The first golf meet for the boys team is Thursday, April 6, when they are host to Mt. Pleasant beginning at 4 p.m.