Taking advantage of high school tournament chances

Sean's team has a few more than a dozen players. From the sounds of it, ~8 players are vying for a spot on the squad that will compete for the high school state championship. Six of these players will compete, two will serve as alternates. The whole season is geared to this goal.

It is fair to say ~4 kids have a spot on that squad locked up. Sean doesn't think he is among these four. He is battling for the 5th or 6th spot with another 3 or 4 other kids.

The team seems to have the talent and the depth where they could make a run at winning the state championship, which would be a big feather in the cap of all involved. Three players return from last year's squad, which finished fifth at 315. The champions shot an even 300.

The coach seems to be doing a good job of giving all a chance to play in matches and tournaments, to post scores and see how they stack up. So when he does get a chance to play an event, Sean goes in knowing that he has to take advantage of the chance, to put up a number.

Sean made a big claim for one of those coveted spots yesterday, posting a four over par 76 to pace the varsity squad, including the locked four, in an event on a tight, hilly course with winds gusting in the 30's. The other scores of his teammates were three 79's and two 80's. Sean's finish was a T5 in a 72 player field.

He's doing a good job of taking advantage of his opportunities to compete in these high school tournaments and matches, putting up numbers that the coaches probably will find hard to overlook. We'll see.

Going into this, his first, high school golf season, I'd read and heard a few things about how the short high school golf team season isn't as important as his summer tournament schedule. Sure, the fields in high school tournaments aren't as deep as those on the regional and national junior golf tours.

But there is a new dynamic I hadn't really anticipated, the intrasquad competition. This grinding to establish a position in the pecking order. It offers an interesting, and refreshing, flavor to the soloist grind of the summer. It is more than the fun and pride of being on a team with some buddies. It is about a season-long competition that hums in the background, where every opportunity to play serves a longer term objective.

Grinding out a varsity team letter

A few weeks back, Sean survived tryouts to make his high school golf team. He is really enjoying golf as a team sport. He takes a lot of pride in carrying his high school bag, wearing the logo hats and shirts, and most especially playing golf with a group of boys sharing a common purpose, and having a blast with them all.

As a high school freshman, his goals all along have been to make the varsity golf squad, and to earn the letter that comes with it. To earn that letter, he tells me he has heard, means that he has to play on the 6 man squad that competes in the state high school state golf tournament in early May.

I'm not exactly sure how many boys made the team, but it sounds like a bit more than a dozen. The coach mixes them up to assemble varsity and JV squads to go out to play in various matches and tournaments. There is one senior on the team, four or five juniors, two or three sophomores, and a handful of freshman.

It sounds like everyone older than freshman are rotated onto any given daily varsity squad, to get their chances to put up numbers. A group of freshman don't quite have the games for this just yet, and appear to be JV specialists. Sean and one other freshman, however, have feet in both camps and are getting ample opportunity to play on the varsity.

Slowly but surely, Sean appears to be earning his way on varsity. He probably won't be sent to any more JV matches, because he is clearly well ahead of that group. But he is also clearly on the bubble, in a dynamic that involves not only scores, but also the coaches dilemma of what to do with kids who don't score as well as Sean but who've been on the team a few years.

Presumably, he'll send to the state tournament the six boys who have the best shot at putting up the four scores that will be needed to win the event, which is likely to be 290 or less. Sean and some of the other kids are counting heads, and it seems like Sean might be as high as #5 in terms of scoring, but the presence of an upper classman probably bumps him to #6, or even #7. I don't doubt Sean is getting a good luck from the coach.

Chats about the situation with Sean provide ample opportunity to remind him the only thing that matters is the scoring. It is the only thing he can really control. His 18 hole avg right now is 77, with only one round in the 80's (an 81).

He's been consistent, but so far all he offers the coach is confidence that he'll put up something in the 70's. From the coaches point of view, Sean hasn't really shown the ability to go low, to show he can put up one of those low numbers, around par, a few of which will be necessary to grab that state title.

Because Sean's consistency includes making too many mistakes out there, throwing away strokes on three or four holes every round. And intellectually and emotionally, he's not quite at the point where he really "gets" that part of golf.

He'd rather think about his strengths than about his weaknesses. Talking about what he does great versus what he needs to improve. Talking about bad shots as random injustices of creation, rather than as the outcome of poor execution. This all seems to me nothing more complex than a reflection of his level of maturity in his development. If you would ask them, the vast majority of teens would tell you they can do no wrong. He'll grow out of this eventually, the kid is only 15 years old, after all.

In terms of that goal to make the state squad and earning the coveted letter, in the few remaining matches he'd probably best help his chances by putting up something less than 75, perhaps even something closer to par than that. He's got the ability, and just needs to figure out a way to limit the mistakes. His coach needs to see a low score from him as solid evidence that he can actually go to a tournament and put up one of those scores that can help the team win.

I really like the idea that Sean imposes these broader goals upon himself, like getting a varsity letter. But there is a significant tension there, too, where he needs to better understand the relationship between his game management and that broad goal.

Because that goal only frames what he can really control, which is his scoring. His score at the end of the day is a direct reflection of how well he manages the series of decisions that face him during a round.

He needs to get to that point in his maturation where he understands that executing each and every of the 70 to 80 odd shots, and the myriad moments and issues that pop up in the course of a round, are all important goals in and of themselves.

He'll figure it all out. Talk about a life lesson....

Milestone: Making the high school golf team

A bit over a year has passed since I began writing this blog, and with it another milestone. In March last year, at 14 Sean was playing what we suspected would be his last season of baseball.

In February this year, at 15, instead of daily treks to the batting cages to work on his hitting and catching to get ready for baseball tryouts, Sean stole hours after school and spent his weekends on the golf course, honing his game.

We had good, unseasonably warm weather for the better part of February and he was playing great, putting up a lot of mid-70's scores.

Still, he was extremely nervous about trying out for the golf team. And it showed.

Tryouts involved playing 3 nine hole rounds after school. His first round didn't go well at all, and he carded a shocking 50, including a score of 10 on one of the par 4's! He just wasn't comfortable with the process. But he shook it off and came in with rounds of 37 and 41 on his next two tryout days.

Recoveries that were good enough to secure that all important spot on the high school golf team.

This past weekend his school sent varsity and JV squads to Jekyll Island to play their first tournament of the season in the Johnny Paulk Invitational. Presumably on the basis of his Jekyll&Hyde tryouts, Sean was seated on his JV team for the event.

His attitude going in was very upbeat. He was mostly (99%) happy to be playing for his school and being with his teammates for a week, but also a tad bit miffed (1%) at not being placed on the varsity squad for the tournament. He took it in stride, which was very good.

But he understood he could have earned a spot with a better performance in his tryouts. We talked about how there is some long-term good that can come from having to shoot his way onto the varsity squad for events for the remainder of the high school season. It will provide several opportunities to work on his mental toughness, to hone his competitive mindset.

In the tournament, the best score posted on the team was a 71, by another freshman. Sean turned in a 77, which was the 2nd best score posted by anyone from his team in the event and good for a T10 in the 150 player field.

The next day, the team played an intrasquad event at the Seaside course on Sea Island, where Sean again posted the 2nd lowest score of the day, a 76, in very windy conditions.

So he is making statements, but with his scores. As long as he (and I) bears in mind that he will earn the spot in events that he deserves with his golf scores, nothing but good can come from the experience.

That's as solid a start to the high school golf career of a budding young golf star as you could hope to ask for!