The White County golf team is utilizing a roster full of returning players and a large junior class to create a competitive environment as the new season begins.
Golf Coach Brandon Simms said the experience of playing on familiar courses will provide a significant advantage for the team this year. Simms said several players have made major improvements since last season and are currently working to separate themselves from the rest of the group to secure a spot in the starting lineup.
“There’s no doubt that experience and playing some of the courses that we play, it’s gonna make a difference that those guys have seen those courses,” Simms said. “We got a pretty large junior class of kids. Some have made some big improvements over what they were playing last year. Look for a little more consistency and maybe just one or two more of them to separate themselves from the others and we should have a pretty solid team.”
Simms said the internal competition for the top five spots has been close through three nine-hole qualifying rounds. Simms said the players have been paired up in ways that encourage competition, with several athletes currently separated by only a stroke or two.
“It’s close right now,” Simms said. “I mean, they’ve had three nine-hole rounds and playing with each other and paired up in ways and ones that they’re being kind of competitive with and we’ve had about three of them that’s kind of starting to separate themselves and three or four that’s all right there together and it’s pretty competitive within a stroke or two on some of them as far as being able to qualify for our first open match, which will be this next Monday, the 27th.”
Simms said the difficulty of golf requires players to work on their game beyond organized practices. Simms said reaching a high level of play often involves independent practice and working with swing coaches.
“Golf’s such a difficult game, it’s something you gotta stay on top of,” Simms said. “Just if all you done was come to organized practices, maybe you’re going to improve some but it takes a lot of work. Not only just playing holes and going practicing on your own but swing coaches and there’s a whole lot to playing golf at a high level.”
Simms said the mental aspect of the game is a primary focus because players perform better when they are not worried about hitting the ball in the wrong direction. Simms said that while the roster features many familiar faces, a new freshman and a new sophomore are currently pushing the returning players for playing time.
“Confidence is everything,” Simms said. “When you step up on a tee and you’re not confident in what you’re doing, you have all these thoughts, it might go left, it might go right, it probably will. When you go in with confidence that you belong there and that you can hit and play and things fall into place.”
Simms said junior Trip Thompson is showing more consistency after a season of ups and downs, while Lucas Phillips has also improved his game. Simms said the team’s only senior, Jack Carpenter, is playing well after an injury prevented him from finishing the previous season.
“Jack Carpenter had a good season last year,” Simms said. “He’s our only senior. Last year, he was playing some pretty decent golf and got hurt and wasn’t able to finish at the end of the season and he’s playing well right now.”
Simms said the group has been easy to coach and has not caused any issues in the classroom.
“They’re all good kids,” Simms said. “I’ve had very little issues with any of them ever. There’s teachers, if you play on a sports team and you do something, I promise your coach is gonna know and I’ve got a pretty good group of boys.”
The team will play its first open match on Monday, August 27.
