The Jesuit Golf team started off its fall season with a bang, the JV and Varsity squads impressing in their first respective tournaments held last week.
The fall campaign began with the Junior Varsity team participating in the Plano East Tournament at the Firewheel Golf Course in Garland on Monday, September 15th. The five-member JV team performed about as well as could be expected in their first tournament, shooting a 299, which was good for second place overall, just one point behind first place Plano West! Coach Cathy Marino expressed her elation and pride in the team’s performance, describing the 299 score as “excellent” and adding, “To have five freshman shoot a 299 and finish second in a JV tournament is exciting and speaks volumes about the success of the team in the future!”
Jake O’Gara ’18 burst onto the scene, shooting a 68 in the tournament, his first as a Ranger, and placing second individually. Jake was “more than pleased” with this score, “grateful for the opportunity to play in the tournament” and gain valuable experience before the spring season begins. Also pleased was Coach Marino, who commented on Jake’s stellar performance, explaining that his 68 was “the lowest JV score in the 10 years that I have been the Jesuit [Golf] coach.”
Griffin Tilln’18 also put in an equally impressive performance, playing third with a score of 72. Rounding out JV’s remarkable string of scores were freshmen Marcus Ramirez, Jackson Houston, and Andrew Buckley with scores of 79, 80, and 81, respectively.
Similarly, the Varsity golf team shined in their season debut in the Bart Granger Memorial Tournament held at Pecan Valley Golf Course in Fort Worth this past weekend. Shooting an “outstanding” 287 in the final round to round out their total score of 891 after shooting 302 in the first two rounds, the Varsity team finished the tournament 11th out of a whopping 50 teams! Even more significant is the fact that this was achieved despite having “two very tired seniors,” according to Marino, who didn’t receive the opportunity to practice the week of the tournament, as both seniors were gone on Community Days.
JC Campbell ’15 led the way with a under-par final round score of 69, his 217 score total earning him 24th place in the tournament. Juniors Will Peavy and Camden Suhy as well as sophomore Martin Breedijk all shot solid rounds of 78 and below to finish in the top 71, all but four strokes separating their admirable totals over the course of the two-day tournament.
When asked about his feelings regarding the team’s strong closing to the Bart Granger in the final round, Suhy responded by applauding his teammates’ perseverance and attitude, saying, “We had a rough start, but we came together as a team in the final round and shot the third lowest round of the day out of 50 teams.” Similarly, Peavy showed pride in the way his team performed and stuck with some of the better teams in the tournament, explaining that this final round “showed other teams that we could go low.”
The focus of this year’s golfers, as it has always been in years past, is on enhancing their games through continual daily practice. O’Gara confided that his goal for the fall season is to “put in my best effort in all practices” so that “tournament results will take care of themselves. Coach Marino echoed this determination, emphasizing that the team is going to “continue practicing hard and continue trying to improve every day.”
Marino has high expectations for her team after these first two tournaments, saying that she believes “the team will continue to perform better and better as they get more tournament experience under the belt.” Peavy also believes that this year’s team has “huge potential,” noting that “our ball striking as a team is the best I have seen. We don’t have many weaknesses.”
Watch out for the golf team in their next tournament on September 24th at Waterview as they prepare to dominate the upcoming spring season.
