High School Golf: a tragedy

As a high school golfer, my team has finished second the last two years in the state meet. Not exactly our goals we were looking to achieve.

With all of us being juniors, we will have our best chance of winning the title next year, but these last two years we've walked away with state runner-up, when we easily could have been champions.

Two years ago we went to state ranked fourth in the state, and with the number one team being very dominant we were playing for second place. After very cold and windy conditions, we stood alone in first place by one shot over two teams after day one. I battled very hard, shooting low for our team the second day, but our efforts fell just short, as we were nudged by one of the teams one shot behind us. We had been beat by a single stroke. One missed putt, one easy up and down that wasn't converted, one stroke.

After last years defeat, we were thinking we could play with anyone this next year. We had a record amount of win, beating the previous years new record with an impressive 101-7 record. Going into the state meet we were ranked third, but this time we felt we were better than our ranking. Upon hearing that the team who beat us by one the year before, and this years number one ranked team, didn't qualify, we were very excited for the possibility of this years title. But after day one in windy conditions, we found ourselves short by seven strokes. The next day our game plan was to run the table. As a whole most of us came out swinging jumping to hot starts, and myself being one under through 2 and all the way through 11, once again in very windy conditions. But after struggling on the tight back nine our teams title sites were once again not in our hands. And with strong finishes by it's players the team who was leading after day one, ended up getting us by nine overall.

Our team will be starting six seniors in all six varsity spots next year, and we will surely be back to make another run for a state title. But heartbreak is tough to recover from, and it may take some of our players a little time to recover. In the long run these second place finishes will make us stronger, but at the moment we are all still a little hurt.

Next year will be different, our rivals who edged us by one will most likely qualify with three of their top four being seniors next year, and it will surely be a battle of the best. As of now, our team is working on fixing their weaknesses, so we will be a major force next year. Our goals are to improve our record from the year before, and maybe give an undefeated season a run. But the state title is definitely our biggest goal after letting it slip from our grasps the past two years.