After last year’s disappointing end to the season, just missing the state tournament, Yutan’s golf team is looking to come back better than ever for their 2025 season.
“Last year was kind of a let down. We had our worst team score of the year at districts and just barely missed state,” senior Tannen Honke said. “This year, we’re going to try to focus on the mental aspect and be more prepared so we can make our state comeback.”
However, this comeback won’t succeed unless the team overcomes recent challenges.
“We have a really inexperienced team this year. Not necessarily young, but we have a lot of new golfers. We have only two returning varsity golfers compared to last year’s four,” Honke said.
With only a couple of returning varsity members, the coaches are adjusting practices to accommodate for the different skill levels.
“We’ve got a couple of kids that are really green, which is promising for the future, but that also means there’s going to be some growing pains this season where we’re getting the experienced guys what they need and the newer guys what they need to be successful,” boys head golf coach Taylor Teeter said.
Due to their lack of experience, the boys are focusing on goals to help achieve their big one of state.
“I think a decent team goal would be to make state as a team, maybe win conference as a team and maybe even break a team record because we have one of our tournaments at Country Drive, so it’s possible,” Honke said.
The team is confident that they will be able to reach these goals.
“If we just work hard at practice every day and get on the course on off-days, I think reaching our goals will be really easy,” senior Nolan Gayer said.
The golfers were tested at their first meet at Syracuse; however, it didn’t quite go the way they wanted it to, with the team finishing fifth of nine teams.
“We all really struggled the first meet, but we’re gonna push it past us and try to get better as the year goes on,” junior Maddox Wentworth said.
Despite the early struggles, the season is just starting, and the golfers are looking forward to competing as a team.
“I’m just excited because there’s nothing more fun than competing in golf with your friends,” Honke said.
