The golf team has put in weeks of work in preparation for the season, and specifically their match against Decatur Central on May 2.

The team expects good results for their meeting against DC at Valle Vista at 4:15.

“I’m feeling really good about this match this year. I know the course fairly well, and I played well on it last year so my expectations are pretty high,” sophomore Davis Arthur said.

Freshman Braden Chase agreed.

“I believe we’re going to go into the match with high expectations for ourselves. I definitely think we’re better than Decatur, but we’ll still have to give our best effort to win. I definitely expect good results from the whole team,” Chase said.

Even though the team beat DC last year, teams can change drastically over the course of even a single offseason. However, the Woodmen have put in the work to make sure they are ready for anything.

“I don’t think Decatur has improved that much since last year, so as long as we play well like I know we can, we should be able to win again,” sophomore Jahlen Burton said.

This offseason, the team has changed drastically. They lost three seniors, including their #1 player, and hired a new coach, Coach Nick Goodrich.

“We got a new coach this year, and he has been teaching us a lot. We’ve tried to go into our matches with a different mindset, like making sure we don’t get frustrated if we’re not playing well on the course,” Chase said.

Along with the already big changes to the team itself, athletes went through one more major change: switching home courses from Hillview to Valle Vista.

“Playing on a new course has been a weird adjustment, but it hasn’t slowed us down from practicing and getting better. Valle Vista is shorter than Hillview and also has fewer trees, which makes it easier to play. It’s also closer to the school,” Burton said.

Like every team, there is always room for improvement. 

“For us to improve, I think we need to take practice more seriously. Obviously, it’s good to have fun in practice, but once we learn how to have fun while also putting in work, I think we can be elite. It’s just important that we take advantage of the time we have during practice and before matches,” Arthur said.

Something that lots of people do not realize is that golf is just as much a mental game as it is physical, and staying locked in and positive during their match against Decatur will be important.

“I think that everyone’s mindset once they start to play badly is something we all need to improve on. It’s easy to get down on yourself even after just one bad hole, and once that negative mindset sets in, it can be hard to get back out of it and can even ruin your round. If we can stay positive during the match, we should have no trouble winning,” Chase said.