Consistently consistent West Holmes golf

Coaches always ask for consistency from their players and West Holmes boys’ golf coach Kim Kauffman seems to be getting exactly that from his young team early this season.

For the second time in as many days, the Knights combined for a team score of 358 to finish 13th at the Garaway Pirate Invite at Willandale Golf Course in Sugarcreek, after carding the exact same score Monday and finishing ninth in the large-school division of the Indian Valley Invitational at River Greens.

The Knights also finished 13th at the Garaway Pirate Invite a year ago to kick off Kauffman’s first season as coach at his alma mater, although that was a very different looking varsity team from this year’s squad which features junior Patrick Shriver as the only returning member.

After becoming the medalist at the Garaway Junior Varsity Invite a year ago, Shriver has begun to show his leadership for Kauffman’s varsity squad, following up Monday’s seven-over 77 at River Greens with another team-low 80 at the par-72 Willandale Course. Meanwhile freshman Andrew Schlabach and sophomore Alex Lytle both checked in with scores of 92 and sophomore Jason Biltz wrapped things up with a 94 for the Knights. “Patrick’s pretty much carrying the load at this point,” said Kauffman, who admits “this is a rebuilding year” for a team that finished second in the Ohio Cardinal Conference and won the OCC Tournament a year ago.

Unfortunately, four members of that varsity squad are no longer teeing it up for West Holmes, and only one of those losses is the result of graduation.

Kauffman realizes things are different today than when he was hitting tee shots for West Holmes back in the 70s. “Back then, we lived for golf season,” he explained, “but I understand nowadays, kids have a lot of different commitments and a lot of them have to work. I’m the kind of coach who likes my team to get some experience and maturity and then we’ll kick some butt.”

What Kauffman hopes is that as some of his underclassmen become committed to the game and return for consecutive seasons together, they will start kicking the kind of butt the tournament hosts did on Tuesday, as Garaway rode medalist Ryan Troyer’s two-under 70 to a team score of 317, beating runner-up and Inter-Valley Conference rival, Ridgewood by a comfortable 14 strokes.

The Knights’ OCC rival Wooster Generals finished third (338), Meadowbrook fourth (339) and Indian Valley Invitational champion, John Glenn fifth (342).

Rounding out the top-12 were sixth-place Dover (345), the Coshocton Redskins (345), New Philadelphia (350), Zanesville (351), River View (355), Strasburg (355), and Rootstown (356). Claymont carded a combined 365 to finish 14th, seven strokes behind West Holmes. Indian Valley (372) was 15th, Newcomerstown (379) 16th, the Beallsville Blue Devils (380) 17th, Tuscarawas Central Catholic (383) 18th, and Hiland 19th (398).

After getting such a high-level of consistency in his team’s first two outings, Coach Kauffman will start to look for some improvement Thursday morning when the Knights travel to Bellville for the Clear Fork Invite.