Coming off a fourth-place finish at the River Wilds Golf Course Invite on April 19, the Griffin boys golf team looked to put up a fight at the Beatrice Country Club on April 22. As a team, the Griffins shot a total of 345 which placed them in second right behind Norris High School, who shot 341. Although golfers play individually, they tally up their final scores to get an overall score and place as a team.
“I felt really good, we played some good golf and who can be mad at second place,” junior Cole Edwards said.
Edwards finished the day shooting 90 alongside varsity golfer junior Will Barth, who finished the day shooting an 82, or ten over par. For the other golfers on the team, they looked to compete around the board against the harsh wind. And despite the challenge, the team used the wind to their advantage, jumping on every opportunity that came their way.
“The wind at Beatrice was the toughest I ever played in,” Edwards said. “You couldn’t tell how hard or soft to hit it and I hit a lot of low shots to keep them out of the wind.”
Along with Barth’s first place, junior Will Wolff shot an 86 and finished in eighth place, and sophomore Joel Berck shot an 87 and finished eleventh. Only the top 15 finishers receive a medal. All of the players required a change in strategy because of the added difficulty from the wind.
“One of the biggest things when you’re playing the wind is being able to control your ball trajectories, like how high or low your ball goes,” junior Calvin Zabloudil said. “Your start line, for example, if the winds off the right, that means you got to start it way right and let the wind take it back.”
Although his score was larger than the 75 that won him first place at Miracle Hills Golf Course, Barth worked with the wind and pulled off the win in a three-person, one-hole playoff, shooting par to seal the deal.
“The one at Miracle Hills I just made very few mistakes,” Barth said. “All the par fives were extremely into the wind. They were all playing 650 yards, they were tough.”
With the team coming down the stretch of its season, State is within reach for the first-year squad. The Griffins look to qualify for the Class B State Championships at Scottsbluff Country Club on May 21 and 22.
