A match in the rain isn’t the best way to start off a season, especially if the sport is golf. The boy’s golf team started their season like this though, in the unforgiving Missouri rain that has plagued us recently. Many other sports were cancelled due to the weather, but their match went on.

Team captain and senior CJ Eddy commented on how the weather affected team spirit during the match.

“It was a little rough because of the weather and some were discouraged,” Eddy said. “I think we were upset about the weather and just wanted to go home”

Some were disheartened by the weather, but team member and sophomore Marcus Falcomata said this usually isn’t the case for the team, they usually have better outlook.

“I think our players have a good mentality, so where they may not have the best swing or consistent ball strike, they make up for it with the way they play the hole,” Falcomata said.

As the team was gearing up for this season, they practiced every day after school, switching the routine throughout the week.

“On three of the days we play nine holes of golf at the Links of Dardenne, on one day we hit range balls at Golf Headquarters and we play chicken putt which is like shortened holes, and on the other day we usually go down to the weight room,” Falcomata said.

Falcomata also practices during the offseason to prepare for the school season.

“On the off season, I play rounds with my dad and I got some lessons from a professional,” Falcomata said.

He also explained that the matches were based on the best four scores out of the five players added together along with match play points which come from playing the other team’s equivalent and winning. For example, if the second players played against each other, the winner of that match would get match play points.

These matches have to be played somewhere, so our golf team has a home course as do other high schools.

“Our home course is Links of Dardene, we play home games there and we also play at other team’s home course; Howell’s is Whitmore, Timberland’s is Lake Forest,” Falcomata said.

Despite the rocky start, Eddy believes the rest of the season will improve.

“I think the season will get better from here,” Eddy said. “I think our confidence and our composure need to improve because we can get really upset when we make a bad shot.”

Like Eddy, Falcomata thinks they’re just getting started and shared his hopes for this season.

“Last year, our varsity team struggled; the best score was a tie with West. So out of the five matches we play, I think we could win two or three. We want to place third in GAC’s, because Howell and Timberland are always the two at the top and we don’t expect to beat them but we want to be that third team,” Falcomata.

The team seems to have high hopes and wants to overcome last year’s struggles, and they’ve got the rest of the season to do just that.